10 million tourists chose to discover French vineyards in 2016 according to France's tourism development agency, "Atout France", an increase of 33% compared to 2009. Tourism around vines and wine, l oenotourism is very popular in a country rich in vineyards and offers multiple destinations with varied landscapes. More than 10,000 cellars can be visited in France. This type of tourism attracts French holidaymakers but also 40% of foreigners, in particular Belgians, British, Germans, Dutch and Americans.
More and more tourists are favoring destinations that offer cultural discoveries, monuments to protected sites, including archaeological or scientific heritage or museums. Wine tourism is fully in line with this trend of seeking authentic holidays close to nature.
The 17 major French wine regions allow you to discover culturally diverse territories, from Alsace to Burgundy, from Corsica to Pays d'Oc, or even from the Loire Valley to the South-West. The VisitFrenchWine.com site, launched in 2016 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development, lists all these regions by highlighting their vineyards but also their cultural heritage to discover. Aware of the growing importance of wine tourism, some territories, in collaboration with the local authorities concerned and the State, have created real entities to attract tourists interested in these types of stays. This is the case for La Cité des civilizations et du vin in Bordeaux or the Cité des vins de Bourgogne in Beaune, which will open in 2019. are also inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List by the World Heritage Committee.
In addition to offering many travel destinations in France, wine tourism plays an important role in economic development. It promotes French wine products and heritage and stimulates the sale of wines, while highlighting an art of living, rich exchanges with winegrowers. The French State made no mistake about it by creating a tourist center of excellence dedicated to oenological tourism aimed more particularly at foreign tourists in order to " unite the various players in the wine and wine world and in tourism, in order to promote French excellence in this field and to make it readable and accessible for tourist customers, particularly foreign ones .
Wine tourism, long limited to large wine estates, is becoming more and more widespread with smaller winegrowers who join forces to offer, in addition to visits to their cellars and explanations of their profession, tourist services hotels, restaurants, sports activities or visits to surrounding museums, for example, with economic benefits for the whole territory.
On the other hand, wine tourism offers are more and more visible thanks to the Internet, a major advantage when you know that almost half of holidaymakers organize their stays on the net.
