By Liz Palmer
Award-Winning Wine Journalist & Global Wine Tourism Strategist
The profile of the wine tourist is changing.
Once associated primarily with older, knowledgeable wine enthusiasts visiting cellars and tasting rooms, wine tourism is attracting a broader generation of travellers seeking gastronomy, culture, nature, sustainability and authentic experiences connected to place.
New 2026 data from Italy provides an interesting snapshot of this evolution.
Research from Dna Tasting, based on data from more than 150 wine businesses where tourism represents a significant source of revenue, suggests that Italy’s wine tourist is becoming younger, increasingly digital and more experience oriented.
A Younger Wine Traveller
Perhaps the most striking finding is demographic: seven out of ten wine tourists in the study are under 50, with visitors aged 25–45 representing a significant share of demand.
This is particularly interesting when compared with the Global Wine Tourism Report 2025, based on 1,310 wineries across 47 countries. That research found 45–65 remains the dominant global age group, but visitors aged 25–44 are becoming increasingly important, particularly around gastronomy, education and sustainability.
Italy’s findings may therefore provide an early indication of a broader generational shift.
They also challenge the assumption that younger consumers’ changing relationship with wine necessarily translates into declining interest in wine tourism.
Younger visitors may simply be engaging with wine differently.
For them, wine is increasingly part of a broader destination experience incorporating food, culture, landscape, wellness and social interaction.
Digital Is Reshaping the Visitor Journey
The research also highlights another significant change: how wine tourism is discovered and purchased.
Bookings are predominantly made online, often approximately one month before arrival, while smartphones increasingly influence research, comparison and purchasing.
For wineries, this means digital infrastructure is becoming part of the hospitality experience itself.
A winery may offer exceptional wine and beautiful surroundings, but if visitors cannot easily discover, understand and book the experience online, it risks losing them before they reach the cellar door.
The Global Wine Tourism Report reinforces this trend. Among European wineries surveyed, 45% were introducing or expanding online booking, while 58% were increasing their use of social media.
AI may add another dimension. As travellers increasingly use AI-powered platforms to research destinations and build itineraries, wineries will need clear, accurate and distinctive digital information that allows both travellers and emerging technologies to understand what makes their experience unique.
From Wine Tasting to Wine Experience
Perhaps the most important development is what visitors want once they arrive.
Traditional tastings remain important, but the Dna Tasting research points toward increasing demand for experiences connecting wine with territory, culture, nature and wellness.
Average spending in the study is approximately €41 per visitor, with couples and small groups particularly important.
This reflects a wider international movement from passive tasting toward participatory and place-based experiences.
Vineyard walks, regional lunches, blending workshops, harvest experiences, conversations with winemakers and cultural encounters can create stronger connections between the visitor and the destination.
The Global Wine Tourism Report found that 65% of wineries surveyed identified authentic and local storytelling as part of their innovation strategies, alongside food-and-wine experiences, local partnerships, personalised experiences and nature-based activities.
The implication is significant:
The tasting room is no longer necessarily the destination. The place itself is becoming the experience.
What This Means for Wine Regions
The findings have implications far beyond Italy.
Wine tourism can no longer be treated simply as an additional service attached to wine production. The Global Wine Tourism Report found that approximately two-thirds of surveyed wineries consider wine tourism profitable or highly profitable, with tourism generating around one-quarter of revenues among respondents.
For wineries, several priorities are emerging:
- Design experiences for more than the wine expert.
- Make discovery and booking seamless and mobile-friendly.
- Connect wine with gastronomy, culture, heritage and landscape.
- Use visitor data to build longer-term relationships.
- Prepare for AI-assisted travel discovery.
- Create experiences that cannot easily be replicated elsewhere.
For tourism boards and destination managers, the lesson is equally important.
Promoting a region simply through lists of wineries and tasting rooms will become increasingly limiting. Wine should instead connect visitors with accommodation, restaurants, cultural heritage, architecture, outdoor recreation, wellness and local communities.
This approach can encourage longer stays, increase visitor expenditure and distribute tourism benefits more widely throughout rural communities.
The Wine Tourist Is Becoming a Destination Traveller
The Italian findings should be interpreted with some caution. Dna Tasting’s analysis covers more than 150 wine businesses using its hospitality-management platform and should not be considered representative of every Italian winery or international wine traveller.
Nevertheless, when considered alongside broader international research, the direction is becoming increasingly clear.
The wine-tourism audience is diversifying. Younger visitors are becoming more important. Digital discovery and booking are increasingly central to the customer journey. And visitors are looking beyond the tasting room toward experiences incorporating food, culture, nature, sustainability and authentic interaction.
The next generation of wine tourists may not necessarily know more about wine.
But they increasingly want to know more about where it comes from, who made it and the place behind the bottle.
The future of wine tourism will therefore be shaped not simply by what wineries pour into the glass, but by how successfully they transform wine, people and place into an experience worth travelling for.
Sources + References
WineNews (2026). 2026 identikit of wine tourists in Italy? 55.3% are Italians and 7 out of 10 are under 50. Reporting findings from Dna Tasting’s analysis of more than 150 wine-tourism businesses.
Hochschule Geisenheim University, UN Tourism, OIV, Great Wine Capitals Global Network & WineTourism.com (2025). Global Wine Tourism Report 2025. International research based on 1,310 wineries across 47 countries.
Food Affairs (2026). L’identikit dell’enoturista: under 50, sempre più connesso e internazionale. Reporting on Dna Tasting’s analysis of Italian wine-tourism demographics, booking behaviour and visitor spending.