Is wine tourism the trend of the future? Experiences in Small Family-Run Businesses

One of the highlights and most rewarding experiences for international tourists visiting Italy is without a doubt discovering the excellence of its food and wine. Tourists especially seek out the places, whether local areas or businesses, where the product is characteristic of the area or the company that produces it. According to the preview of the 2025 “Report on Italian Food and Wine Tourism”, released recently by its author, Roberta Garibaldi, president of AITE-Italian Food and Wine Tourism Association, foreign visitors would be even more interested in visiting smaller, family-run businesses. The advantage would be greater authenticity and a closer relationship with the owner, who works in the company every day guaranteeing the quality he then offers to the end customer.
The wine world would benefit from this trend as well, as it is widespread throughout Italy, counting more than 240,000 farms that cultivate vineyards and 30. 000 winemaking companies. Industrial-scale businesses, instead, are a minority (1.883), according to data published by the Italian institute of services for agro-food markets, ISMEA, in the “L’Italia del Vino” 2025 report.
The Italian wine industry is dominated by small and medium-sized businesses that are strongly tied to the concept of family business. These are the wineries that tourists from the United States, Great Britain, and Germany are eager to visit during their upcoming trips to Italy. We analyzed the responses the answers of respondents from three of the most important Countries for Italian tourism (referring to attendance and spending power). The results showed that visiting wineries continues to be the most popular and enjoyable experience of those during previous trips to Italy. The highest percentage was among visitors from the USA (22%), followed by the United Kingdom (18%) and Germany (17%). Regarding future travel, visits to production sites are on the agendas of 78% of US tourists, 74% of British tourists, and 61% of German tourists, and wineries continuing to dominate. Wine production sites were listed as the destination for upcoming trips by 30% of German tourists, 36% of British tourists, and 42% of American tourists. Visits to wineries resulted in a higher percentage than other production sites for Italian food and wine specialties, ranking first, ahead of olive oil mills and olive oil producers, while dairies are in third place.
Visits to family-owned and operated wineries is especially desirable among tourists of American origin (68%), ahead of British origin (57%) and German origin (49%). Data becomes even more interesting when analyzed by age groups. The American Gen Z tourists (those born between 1997 and 2012), expressed the greatest interest in family-owned wineries, 82%, versus 67% of very young British travelers. Among German tourists, the highest interest in percentage was reached by Gen X (1965-1980), while among British tourists, the Millennial generation (1981-1996) expressed the highest desire to visit this type of winery, reaching 78%.
“Visiting a family-run winery is one of the most popular food and wine experiences among international tourists. The Report’s data revealed that they are higher than visits to the best-known brands in terms of popularity, and are preceded only by visits to historic Italian homes”, Roberta Garibaldi explained. “What’s really exciting is being welcomed directly by the owners. This added value guarantees authenticity, but it must be accompanied by the necessary investments in digital communication, multi-channel promotion, and the use of artificial intelligence to gain online visibility and be able to go beyond the leading tour operator packages in the countries of origin of international tourists. Moreover”, Garibaldi concluded, “family-run businesses should consider hiring one of the key professionals identified in the “White Book on Food and Wine Tourism Professions”.