With summer right around the corner, wineries all over the US are preparing what is expected to be the busiest summer in over 4 years. Hampered by the economy which prevented many wine consumers from planning wine country vacations, wineries are rolling out the red carpet by designing and offering new tours and tastings, larger discounts on purchases and using social media to engage wine lovers to plan a wine country visit. Websites like CellarPass are designed to help wine country visitors plan their visits by making reservations.
The staff at CellarPass has been tracking industry traffic patterns since 2006 and the traffic on their website for 2011 is setting records. In fact in May 2011, visitors to CellarPass.com was up 26%, while reservation traffic was up nearly 250% breaking all previous single month records. "We're very pleased with May's numbers, but most since most of the regions experienced inclimant weather, many consumers waited it out and made reservations for later summer months like July and August", says Sarah Elliman, VP of Sales and Marketing for CellarPass. "June is off to a rough start, but the forecast for the second week of June looks really good, with warm weather settling in", continues Elliman. This not only makes the winemakers happy as this helps accelerate the growing season, but consumers flock to wine country when the sun is out and the weather is warm."
The weird weather patterns haven't stopped the CellarPass staff from getting more wineries readied for the summer as they've recently added wineries to their website so that wine country visitors can plan their visits by building itineries and making reservations. Wineries in New York, such as Seneca Lake, Hudson Valley and Cayuga Lake have joined CellarPass, while more have been added to Calaveras, Sonoma and Napa. "We're very happy to see wineries embracing CellarPass for it's leadership in usability, market leadership as wineries have greatly benefitted from our coast-to-coast reach. By having wineries in New York benefits wineries in Sonoma as consumers have identified CellarPass as the clear brand of choice when making their wine country plans", says Sarah Elliman.
"What has suprised wineries the most is guests making reservations for months out, rather than just days", says Tim Campbell. "Our early research showed that visitors would use the system to book months out, even as long as a year out to celebrate anniversaries, birthdays and so on and we're really happy that it's proving our early data."
With wineries expecting more wine country visitors, there's never been a better time to take the time to visit CellarPass.com, plan your intinerary and make reservations, guaranteeing your spot on the tour or space at the tasting bar. And now, with CellarPass offering reservations for popular wine country restaurants, it couldn't be any easier for you to sign up and get started as it takes just a few clicks to create an account and start planning your itinerary as it's FREE to join and costs nothing to make reservations 24/7. Learn More
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