The FINANCIAL — From May 30 to June 8, 2011 a 15 member delegation of Georgian wine company owners and heads of prominent Georgian Tourism companies will be visiting the US as part of a wine tourism development project.
The project was initiated by Tourism Committee of American Chamber of Commerce, chaired by Betsy Haskell, and the Georgian Wine Association, headed by Tina Kezeli and organized by the U.S. Department of Commerce and USAID’s Economic Prosperity Initiative.
The group will visit the Finger Lakes region of New York State, New York City and Sonoma and Lodi counties in Northern California.
The purpose of the trip is to illustrate how cooperative efforts on the part of the wine industry, educational institutions and local governments can enable a region to provide an unforgettable tourist experience. The tour will look at how to combine local culture and wine tasting and how to market a region to attract wine tourism. Its aim will be to help wine makers enhance Georgia’s position as a wine tourism destination.
“Wine tourism in Georgia is relatively under-developed and can benefit enormously from the insights of more developed wine tourism markets”, commenting on the project, David Lee, the President of AmCham, said. “AmCham, through its Tourism Committee and our member, Georgian Wine Association, is doing everything it can to assist the development of wine tourism in Georgia”.
On Thursday, June 2nd, AmCham will host the First Official Tasting of the finest Georgian wines in New York City at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. In the evening of the same day American Friends of Georgia, in collaboration with CORUS Imports and the Georgian Wine House, will also host a Georgian wine reception for 150 invited guests.
Nearly 21 million travelers in 2008 visited California’s wine regions, which are becoming more popular as consumers learn more about the diverse areas that offer distinct wines, landscape and culinary experiences.
Visitors to California spent $87.7 billion in 2009. Travel spending decreased by 10 percent from the preceding year.
During 2009, travel spending in California directly supported 881,000 jobs with earnings of $29.8 billion. Travel spending generated the greatest number of jobs in accommodation and food services (506,000) and arts, entertainment and recreation (221,000 jobs)
Over 17 percent of all travel spending in the state in 2009 was attributable to international travel.
Travel spending in 2009 generated $1.9 billion in local taxes and $3.4 billion in state taxes.
Visitor volume and market share
Approximately 334 million domestic and international visitors traveled to and through California in 2009.
Domestic Travel
338 million domestic visitors traveled to and through California in 2008, down -1.0 percent from 2007. Californians themselves are the mainstay of the state's travel and tourism industry, comprising 86 percent of domestic travel, or 290 million person-trips.
California’s top out-of-state domestic markets are Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Oregon, Washington and Illinois.
Total leisure visitor volume increased three percent in 2008 as gas prices fell in the second half of the year. California tourism also benefited from in-state travel in 2008 as travelers focused on closer-to- home destinations amidst rising airfares and a waning economy.
California has the largest market share of domestic travel among all 50 states with a mark of 11.3 percent in 2008. California had a 11.4 percent share of domestic leisure travel in 2008.Approximately 22.7 million domestic travelers flew to and through California on U.S. carriers in 2008. Domestic air traffic at California airports decreased by 3.6 percent over 2007.
International Travel
Of California’s approximately 12.5 million international visitors 4.8 million were from overseas in 2009. California enjoyed a 20 percent share of all overseas travel to the U.S. (4,9)
California's top overseas visitor markets in 2009 were: United Kingdom (663,000), Japan (462,000), Australia (369,000), Germany (355,000), S. Korea (277,000), France.
Approximately 6.5 million Mexicans visited California in 2009. Of this total, 343,000 arrived by air, with the remainder traveling to California by land or sea. Both overall Mexican travel, -4%, and Mexican air travel, -9%, declined in 2009 primarily because of poor economic conditions in Mexico including a weak exchange rate for the peso.
Approximately 1.2 million Canadians traveled to and through California in 2009, a 5% decrease from 2008. This total represents 7.5% of all Canadian travel to the US. About 73% of Canadian travel to California is by air, with the remainder by land and sea. Eight-five percent of California’s Canadian visitors, too, are from British Columbia, Alberta, or Ontario.
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