Moving into wine tourism without adequate research is like walking blindfolded into a dark room with holes in the floor - one wrong step and you're history. Walk into the room with eyes wide open and a guide, and you're several steps ahead of the game.

There are two key questions that need satisfying: How can wine tourism help sell my wine and enhance my brand? And how can wine tourism contribute to the commercial viability of my business?

Research and analysis can help answer these by focussing on three areas:

Visitors & Consumers
Who are they: Families? Young singles? High-spending professionals? What is the mix of your customer base? Are you catering well to them? What are they looking for: particular wines? A great day out? A chance to see the property and meet you? Items they cannot buy in a bottle shop? If you can discover more about them, where they live, what motivates them and how to connect with them, you are on the way to building long-term loyal customers.

Industry
What is your competitive position? Review current trends (local, national and international) and investigate consumption rates and market pressures.

Region
Examine local brands, operators and competitors. Then weigh these against your opportunities for leverage; your location and the strength of the local economy. What/who is your direct competition? Is there adequate consumer demand (or are you able to create adequate consumer demand) to support your business?

Market research can be conducted in-house or by professional researchers, and the good news is that a great deal of information is already available (cheaply or free) from industry, government agencies and tourism organisations.

Research also includes going out to other cellar doors - in your region and further afield. It is impossible to benchmark yourself against others if you simply don't know what's on offer. Go as a potential customer rather than an industry compatriot (this might not work in your own region of course - so take some friends).

In this Section:

• Learn about what motivates visitors and consumers generally and how to apply the information
  
• Use the Cellar Door Research Kit to collect visitor information, benchmark your performance and conduct consumer surveys
  
• Find out where to access relevant and up to date wine tourism research and publications.