Portugal's Fladgate Partnership, which controls Port brands Fonseca, Croft Port and Taylors, is to invest between €80 million and €100 million in the construction of a tourist centre it is to name 'The World of Wine', which the company believes will easily welcome in excess of a million visitors annually.
Among the amenities the facility will contain will be restaurants, a wine-tasting school, a museum showcasing the history of Portuguese textiles and fashion, as well as a museum dedicated to the history and culture of the city of Porto itself.
“Last year visitors to port cellars exceeded one million for the first time,” said Adrian Bridge, Fladgate’s CEO to TheDrinksBusiness.com, “and there were six million people through Porto’s airport, and ‘bed nights’ in the city totalled 1.7 million, and hotel revenues have increased by 50% in the last four years.
“Port is our core business but tourism is synergistic … in today’s world the consumer is knocking on our door, so it makes huge sense to be welcoming them here, and you can make a connection with them that you will never make through a PowerPoint presentation on the other side of the world,” he added.
The World of Wine is anticipated to be operational by 2020, and will cover 30,000 square metres.
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Peter Donnelly. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
