Bridge: ‘Cellar door sales are a thing of the past’

Adrian Bridge, CEO of The Fladgate Partnership, has argued that wine tourism – at least in Porto – needs to focus less on cellar door wine sales and more on creating “good old-fashioned ambassadors.”

Speaking to the drinks business in Porto recently on the subject of wine tourism, Bridge explained that, odd as it might sound, “I don’t want to sell them [visitors] Port. I think cellar door is a thing of the past.”

Portugal is experiencing a tourist boom at the moment with over 11 million people visiting the country last year – the sixth straight year of increased tourism – but at the western-most edge of Europe many come by budget airlines and pack light – it’s not like other regions around the world where people drive around and have the luxury of a car boot to take the weight of a case or two.

“Many people are flying on budget airlines and can’t take a bottle with them and even if they do all you’ve sold is a bottle,” explained Bridge.

“I’d rather prefer they sit down and learn. It’s about making ambassadors through good, old-fashioned word of mouth.”

Not that Taylor’s will be stopping selling wine at its lodge door of course but Bridge went on that he had many ideas about how technology might be used to help the company follow up with visitors, such as by sending them an email or SMS message when they’re home telling them the closest shop where they can buy one of the group’s labels.

“You have to be careful,” he conceded. “You can overdo communication. As long as people opt in it’s a way to extend the level of engagement for those who want it.”

Much change is currently afoot in Porto (or Vila Nova de Gaia more accurately) as the major producers have invested heavily in new visitor centres and hospitality over the last five years – arguably making the city Europe’s leading and most modern destination for wine tourism.

As well as its two hotels in Porto, The Yeatman and Infanta Sagres, Taylor’s revamped its visitor centre last year and has added a new audio tour, which is now available in nine languages (Japanese and South Korean are the latest additions and Mandarin is soon to follow).

The tour has two and a half hours of content (fully approved content that is, Bridge noted that some guides in the past had a habit of going off script occasionally and making things up) but visitors can choose to do, “as much or as little as they like.”

The Fladgate Partnership is also embarking on a €100 million project to turn a 30,000m2 area below the Yeatman Hotel into ‘The World of Wine’ – a museum on the history of Porto, its wines, the cork industry, the textile industry of the region, as well including restaurants and events spaces and an area dedicated to the history of drinking vessels a particular passion of Bridge’s.

With construction slated to start this November, the area is forecast to receive over 500,000 visitors rising to 1 million in its first few years.

Anyone doubting those numbers are possible need only refer to another Port house, Calem, whose lodge is located down by the quay in Gaia.

Last week the Sogevinus-owned company officially opened its new visitor centre which has undergone a €3m revamp.

Patrícia Neves de Sousa, marketing director as Sogevinus, told db that the centre already welcomes 235,000 tourists a year and with the increased space (now up to 3,000m2) the ambition is to exceed 300,000.

With those sort of figures and with each person paying around €7 per head for a visit, one can see why Bridge sees a greater future just in regular ticket sales and educating a captive audience than in hoping visitors, maybe, put their money into buying the odd bottle.

Not that bottle sales are out completely. Paul Symington, co-director of Symington Family Estates, agrees completely with Bridge that opening the lodges to visitors (and the Cockburn’s lodge opened this July with Graham’s having received a major investment a few years ago) should be about creating ambassadors.

‘Treat them well and they’ll be fans for life,” he said to db and part of that experience, occasionally, is the feeling of buying a bottle direct from a producer.

Indeed, since the revamp of the visitor centre at Graham’s the average overall spend per visitor on visits, tastings and bottle purchases has effectively doubled from around €14 to €26-28.

On the other hand, Symington recognised as well that, due to the restrictions of budget air travel, “there will be an upper limit,” to what people could and would buy but, as part of a way round that, at both Cockburn’s and Graham’s visitors from the UK and mainland Europe can arrange to have bottles shipped to them.