NEWS
INDIA’S WINE CAPITAL NASHIK RECEIVED 55K TOURISTS OVER THE HOLIDAY
By Siulan Law Mathews DipWSET
8-1-2020
Source: Sula Vineyards
Over 55,000 tourists from across India visited the wineries in Nashik district in Maharashtra State during the last 10 days in 2019, driving hotel occupancy rate to 100%, according to a report in Times of India.
Sula Vineyards, India’s largest winery, proved to be the most popular and recorded footfall of around 35,000 tourists between 21st and 31st of December. The total number of tourists Sula received in December was 45,000.
These numbers are very good in a country where wine penetration is estimated at 1 to 2 million people and per capita wine consumption is minimal at 4.6 milliliter per year.
Nashik has in recent years become India’s wine capital and is now the country’s top destination of wine tourism.
The district is some 167 kilometers to the Northeast of Mumbai in an area characterised by mountains and hills of volcanic origin.
“There has been good response from tourists during the second half of December. Usually, the number of tourists at the wineries is around 2,000 a day. The number increased two-and-a-half times during last 10 days of December,” Times of India quoted a spokesman of All India Wine Producers Associations as saying.
"Last year, around 50,000 tourists had visited different wineries during the same period. There has been a marginal rise (10%) in footfall during the festive period of Christmas and New Year,” the spokesman added.
Dubbed India’s Napa Valley, there are 29 wineries in operation in Nashik district. Apart from Sula, other wineries like Grover Zampa, Soma, York and Vallonnie also have operations there.
“Usually, around 5,000 tourists come every month, but response was very good during last 10 days of December. Over 10,000 tourists visited our winery in past 10 days,” Pradeep Pachpatil, chairman and managing director of Soma Vineyards, was quoted as saying.
It was said that the tourists are keen in doing wine tastings as well as visiting the facilities.
Hotel business benefited a lot from the popularity of wine tourism in Nashik, it was reported that hotel occupancy rate reached 100% in the last seven days of 2019.
(the writer can be contacted at: info@thewinechronicle.com)
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