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Austria rolls outs extensive post-lockdown hospitality campaign
Austrian Wine has started an extensive marketing campaign to support its domestic on-trade industry in the aftermath of the Covid-19 lockdown, which includes footing the bill for consumers to drink Austrian wine.
More than half of Austria’s domestic wine sales were sold through the on-trade – restaurants, bars, inns and wine taverns known as Heurigen and Buschenschankent, and wine festival in 2019, however due to the restrictions put in place to battle the pandemic, the channle almost completely collapsed. As a result, the Austrian Wine Marketing Board (Austrian Wine) has started an extensive campaign to support the sector following the easing of lockdown measures.
The campaign has three stages which starts with building excitement about the reopening of the Austrian on-trade channel on social media. It is employing activities that encourage interaction, and involving winemakers, sommeliers and restaurateurs to encourage consumers to revisit restaurants and bars when they are fully open.
The second phase will see two promotions – a competition for restaurants to come up with the best concept for ‘Austria by the glass’ to encourage the trade to develop ideas to promote Austrian wines, and a consumer-facing campaign. The ‘invitation from Austrian wine’, will encourage consumers to choose Austrian wines, by covering ten restaurant tabs every day during July 2021 if the wine on the bill is exclusively Austrian.
“The goal of both of these promotions is to encourage wine consumption in moderation when eating out,” Austrian Wine said, and would rely on on hospitality venues having an exciting range of high quality Austrian wines on offer.
The final phase includes a long-term goal to support training for sommeliers and boost people’s knowledge of Austrian wines among the hospitaly trade. It will support individuals wanting to train as a junior sommelier or the more advanced Austrian sommelier, and also develop tutorials for restaurants to grow their wine revenues. The move will culminate in an Austrian Sommelier Summit next year.
Wine tourism