Cruise lines are getting on board with the wine tourism trend. An analysis published on ScienceDirect revealed that wine tourism has become crucial to the travel industry, with tourists visiting wine-producing regions all over the world. It’s reported that more than eight million tourists visit wineries in Australia every year, whilst Napa Valley generated as much as $54.8 billion for California in 2021 due to the high number of visitors going to its super popular wineries.
Due to the interest in this type of tourism, cruise lines started to offer experiences and services that wine enthusiasts would love. To illustrate, here are some of the cruise experiences that will make you want to sample a glass (or two):
Bucket List Destinations For Enthusiasts
Wine from foreign countries tastes different due to the climate, soil, and topography of the region. Thus, enthusiasts are likely to want to visit various wine-producing regions in the world to have a sip of their local products.
With that in mind, wine enthusiasts are likely to be attracted to a cruise trip that stops in various wine-producing regions. To illustrate, Royal Caribbean Cruises have a Pacific Coastal tour, which hits various destinations within the United States. One of the destinations is Oregon, which even holds unique festivals like the Asian American Pacific Islander Food and Wine Fest. Through this Pacific Coastal tour, passengers can enjoy the famous Pinot Noir of Oregon. They have a taste of Cabernet Sauvignon at the California stop.
Memorable Shore Excursions
Cruise passengers are usually free to explore a destination their own way, walking the streets and seeing the sights. However, some cruise lines go above and beyond by offering shore excursions that suit the hobbies and interests of the passengers. Indeed, some cruise lines even provide dedicated shore excursions for people who love wine.
One of these is Oceania Cruises, which is the leading culinary-focused cruise line. The company plans to provide more services for its passengers this 2023. They offer new culinary discovery tours, go-local tours, and food and wine trail tours. Each food and wine trail tour will be organized by a local culinary expert. So that guests can gain unique insights about the varieties and even have a behind-the-scenes experience of the winemaking process. Through this special tour, enthusiasts can sample more wine varieties and expand their knowledge about the industry.
Unlimited Wine Offerings Onboard
Travelers don’t join cruises for the destinations or the shore excursions alone. Passengers also spend a significant amount of time on the ships, which is why cruises also offer exciting services that can satisfy the taste buds of every wine enthusiast onboard.
Enthusiasts can now enjoy different varieties of wine onboard luxury cruise liners, accentuating their wine cruise. As such, Explora Journeys welcomes guests with a bottle of wine of their choice upon their arrival on the luxury cruise ship. Explora also ensures that passengers can sample their selection of unlimited fine wines. They are available anytime on their all-inclusive journeys. Thanks to these inclusions, passengers can sip any of their favorite wine varieties as they travel to and from top wine-producing regions like the Mediterranean and the United States.
Educational Opportunities For Wine
There are plenty of cruise trips that don’t have stops in wine-producing regions. However, enthusiasts can still sample various varieties and learn more about wine through the onboard activities of cruise ships.
These ships have culinary experts who can teach passengers about wine. Celebrity Cruises’ newest ship, the Celebrity Beyond, provides adult-centered experiences like wine tastings. On top of that, Celebrity Cruises also holds food and wine pairing workshops to help passengers. It learn how wine can bring out the flavors of certain types of dishes. The cruise line also offers a Riedel comparative wine crystal workshop to learn how a glass’s shape and quality can affect each drink’s flavors. Finally, the cruise line also offers a World Wine Tour to let passengers sample wines from various countries without leaving the ship.
If you want more fun traveling ideas, check out our recommendations here at RecipeDev. Our articles will help you learn where you can sample the best dishes and drinks. How you can make them from your own home.
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