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Enotourism
First company in Chile devoted
to boost tourism in vineyards
TurisVino, a company created by Ximena Merino,
the sister of Vinos de Chile president, is operating since
February. Report by Danilo Bustamante for El Mercurio newspaper
from Santiago de Chile.
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Even
though in valleys such as Burdeos or Napa
this industry is ultra developed, in Chile,
the viticultural tourism – enotourism- has not yet come
of age. This important sector has been characterized by a
certain informality and lack of data. This is what the local
businesswoman Ximena Merino found out before
she set a bet on this line and launched the company
TurisVino.
 Merino
is the sister of the union’s president Vinos
de Chile, René Merino, and
she’s linked to Casa Tamaya vineyards.
After she detected these situations, she devoted herself to
the creation of the first portal of the area to offer people
and tour operators access to complete cadastral reports of
the vineyards that include hotel catering, tourist and gastronomic
services, as well as the possibility of making reservation
and purchases with online payments.
The first step of the company was to detect and distinguish
those vineyards that truly offered saleable services to eventual
clients, generally foreigners. “Out of the 96 vineyards
open to tourism in Chile, only 40 of them offer exportable
products,” says Merino, and adds that up to date
they have already gather 30 of them. With regard to the services
that these vineyards already offer, there are a total of 124
available beds, all in general in boutique hotels of between
3 and 7 rooms each.
The sector’s challenge
For the businesswoman, the professionalization of enotourism
sales also presupposes the professionalization of those who
work in the area. For this reason the company is developing
a course called Ecotourism Guides, which
will be dictated through the e-learning modality and will
start in October.
"The wine cellars are slowly realizing that this
could mean a good business and a way of making the customer
try the products of their wine cellar,” says Merino,
who is already working with companies such as Viu
Manent, Anakena, Errázuriz and Casa Silva,
among others.
The major difficulties this businesswoman has faced when evaluating
the project first months are related to the lack of association
there is among the vineyards and the lack of professionalism,
which in her opinion stops companies from discovering the
importance of enotourism. “In Napa (US) for example
there are wine cellars that sell more wine in the vineyard
store than in supermarkets or restaurants”, she
adds.
Ximena Merino is general manager of TurisVino
and the sister of the Vinos de Chile union’s president,
René Merino. Her connection to industry is also related
to her family, which is linked to Casa Tamaya vineyards.
July 8th, 2008
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