Global Wine Tourism Organization Circles: Inspiring new futures together

The Ministry of Tourism and Sports of Argentina, Matías Lammens and
the Director General of Tourism Policy of Greece, Panagiota
Dionysopoulou, participated on Monday November 30 in the first roundtable organized by the Global Wine Tourism Organization (GWTO)
within its ”Connecting Governments” initiative.

The act was moderated by GWTO MICE Director, Arnaldo Nardone and
conducted by the GWTO President CEO, José Antonio Vidal, who started
by pointing out one of the main commitments of the Organization: the
coopetitiveness between all agents conforming the value chain in the Wine
Tourism sector. “As proof of it, today we have with us, two of the twenty
countries that count with a Wine Tourism offer: welcome Argentina and
Greece.” With a “Let the Wine Tourism party begin!”, Vidal gave way to the
respective promotional videos, after which both guests started the talk on
the topics proposed by the Director of the ‘GWTO Academy’, Coralie Haller
and the Regional Directors, Pablo Singerman (Latin America) and Leonid
Gelibterman (Eastern Europe and Western and Central Asia).

Matías Lammens stated that “Wine Tourism is one of the biggest
strengths in Argentina due to the competitive advantages that it offers to
the tourists, in comparison with the rest of the World: climate and
landscape diversity, the excellent quality of the wines and of the national
gastronomy, Safe Travel certification and its current currency exchange
rate”.

The Minister also mentioned that “this year we have carried out a Plan on
three fronts: Industry sustainability, Training and Improvement of
infrastructures. Thus, the Argentinean Wine Tourism Observatory was
created, the Wine Tourism Marketing Plan has been designed and the app
for the ‘Wine, travels and gatherings’ was launched”.

Panagiota Dionysopoulou, on her part, highlighted that “Wine Tourism is
a high priority matter within the agenda of the Greek Ministry of Tourism which has been actively joining initiatives such as Open Cellar Doors. Their
main goal for 2021 is the recovery of the country as a tourist destination,
improving the investment regulatory framework and adopting all the
required measures to keep up with the new global trends. The future will be different and challenging, but filled with opportunities for innovation”.

Lastly, toasting with a wine from each other’s country, they sealed the
incorporation of both nations to the Organization. Lammens and
Dionysopoulou expressed their enthusiasm in regards to the launching of
GWTO: “For us the creation of GWTO is a great news and it coincides with
our spirit. We celebrate it and we imagine ourselves working side to side”,
the Argentinean Minister concluded. For the Director General of Tourism
Policy of Greece “GWTO and its Academy will provide an inclusive
cooperative governance and all the necessary strategic tools for the sector.
We are happy and we greatly appreciate the cooperation with all the taskforce involved in managing GWTO with passion, led by José Antonio Vidal”.

During the meeting, the President of GWTO also announced the creation of
the World Wine Tourism Economical Monitor, the GWTO Seal of
Quality -which will greatly benefit the promotion of the Wine Tourism
products for their commercialization-, the creation of the International
Wine Tourism Marketplace and the organization of events at both
local and global levels.