TOURISM: ‘MADE IN ITALY’ WINE GOES GOLFING ... FOREIGN COMMERCE REGISTERS AN INCREASE OF 3.6% IN EXPORTS, CONFIRMING THE FASCINATION WITH ITALIAN WINE. THE LATEST RESULTS FROM A SURVEY BY CENSIS, CITTA’ DEL VINO & COLDIRETTI

Wine tourism, which has registered a growth of 6% and earnings of 2.5 billion euros, is the best tool to
attract golf enthusiasts from around the world. Golfers currently create a commerce in Italy of about 100 million euros, with an increase of about 6-7 percent per year, far behind that of other countries in Northern Europe and the United States. This data was confirmed by Coldiretti, and Città del vino, who recently presented the Wine Tour Cup, a tournament that runs from the end of March to November and unites the sport of golf with food and wine tourism.

The goal, emphasized Coldiretti and Città del vino, is to promote a combination that is capable of “making a hole in one” with the 6.5 million golf players that exist and quality ‘Made in Italy’ products. The data for foreign commerce demonstrates that wine is the best ambassador for ‘Made in Italy’ products with a world export value that reached record numbers in 2005, at almost 3 billion euros (+3.6%), and marking increases in both the United States (+4.2%) and Europe (3.4%).

Then there is the added value of the 336 Italian golf courses, which has practically doubled in the past 15 years, just as the number of club members have, reaching 81,000 in 2005. And, according to the survey, the majority of golf tourists from European countries have a certain status and a mid to high spending capacity and, by nature, continuously travel in search of new greens: on average 75% of players take
their vacations abroad, always choosing a new location to try out.

Thus, golf tourism is capable of generating quite a bit of income for host territories.

• the average stay for a golf tourist is 7 days, superior to that of average tourists (3.4 days for
foreigners);

• golfers spend and average of 150/180 euros, three times that of other tourists (50/55 euro);

• those who accompany golfers usually don’t participate directly in the game but spend their time
“consuming” the cultural, artistic, environmental, and gastronomic attractions of the area.

Coldiretti and Città del vino confirm that it would be possible to tempt golfers with Italy’s eno-gastronomic delights because 60% of all golf courses are located in the top wine regions (Piedmont, Alto Adige, Veneto, Friuli, and Tuscany); 70 “Wine Roads” out of 100 pass through municipalities that already have golf courses. 50% of the municipalities that host a golf course also have important citations in the top restaurant guides.

The Wine Tour Cup, promoted by Coldiretti and Città del vino, is a golf tournament that takes
place in some of the most prestigious Golf clubs in Italy, all located near Città del vino municipalities.
It is a unique event that combines golf with the promotion of territorial wine. There are 27 calendar
events. The inauguration took place in the Veneto region on March 26 with the first game played at the
Verona Golf Club and with a bountiful side of tastings of local products and with wines like Doc Bardolino, Soave, Recioto, and reds from Valpolicella. The final game will be held in Sicily in November 2006 at the Golf Club le Madoine and the Hotel Acacia Resort. And, once again this year, alongside the golfing challenge, there will be the challenge of chefs in club house kitchens for the “Top of Golf” prize.
The clubs that offer the best menus based on local products and recipes, accompanied by the best dining
services and the best wine and oil lists will be awarded the coveted prize.

A guide to the wines, the restaurants, and the hospitality structures surrounding golf courses will also
be printed for the areas.

For each of the 27 games, local food and wine tastings organized by Coldiretti-Campagna Amica will accompany the events. While tour operator ILG Travel will promote tourist packages that combine wine and golf itineraries.

Città del vino president, Floriano Zambon, pointed out, “In regards to golf, we are still a long way off from countries like Great Britain, Sweden, and Germany, but we do represent, however, a prime destination for gastronomic tourists. The Wine Tour Cup has been created precisely to combine golf tourism, which is widely diffused in Northern Europe and Spain, with that of wine tourism
that already represents a huge resource for our territories. Twenty years ago our country boasted 57
million tourists arriving each year. Today, that number has fallen to 37.1 million. An enormous fall
given to competition from new destinations. Within this declining parabola, wine tourism and golf tourism must grow year by year”.

And Coldiretti president, Paolo Bedoni pointed out that Italian wine has witnessed a regenerative process through a system of enterprises that, after the long process of qualitative valorization it has also added as its goal the possibility of offering an entire territory – all of its genetic patrimony, its vineyards, its climate, landscapes, and artistic and cultural heritage - in a glass of wine. This new model of development, which has an inseparable attachment to a territory equipped with extraordinary resources, is the extra card that the Italian productive system can play to re-launch ‘Made in Italy’ holiday offers.
President Bedoni concludes that it is no coincidence that, according to the results of a recent
study by the Piepoli Institute, commissioned by the Leonardo Institute and ICE, one out of two foreigners
(45%) claim wine and food are the first thing that come to mind when thinking of Italy, much more than for sites (20%), fashion (19%), and soccer (15%).