Robert Joseph gave the audience at La Motte plenty to think about while addressing attendees to the Best of Wine Tourism 2013 awards function.  How do you attract more visitors and how do you get these visitors to spend more money?  These are the questions that wineries should be asking themselves continuously.  Robert suggested that TripAdvisor is regularly scanned for feedback and that there should be a response to feedback given.  TripAdvisor is one way of building a relationship with your customers; take the opportunity to engage with them! Other questions posed include:

• what are you doing for the designated driver – the person who is not tasting your wines?
• do you have a child friendly environment for younger visitors?
• do you allow pets?
• are you selling food or pre-packaged snacks?
• is there free wi-fi available?

  

These questions are about making visitors spend more time at your winery. Do you really want to make money?  Consider your facility from a visitor’s point of view.   If guests spend more time tasting your wines the assumption is that they might spend more money. “Money is like a dirty little secret in the world of wine”!