Safe, Sustainable and Flexible Wine Tourism

In this blog we look at the issues that have been highlighted by the Covid-19 pandemic and the challenges that go along with that. We also look at the impact of travel around the world and discuss how Iberian Wine Tours intends to respond to that.

Renewing wine tourism to be safe, sustainable and flexible

The pandemic has had a huge impact on the travel industry, initially through the abrupt cessation of travel and subsequently through a continued state of uncertainty and unpredictability about the various Covid waves and the unpredictable travel rules lurching in their wake. For individuals and for travel businesses, this has tinged travel planning with a seemingly continual shadow of provisionality and uncertainty.

We have all had more time for introspection and at Iberian Wine Tours we’ve found a renewed belief in the power of travel and our mission to connect people to far away places and cultures through the lens of a wine glass. We have been heartened to hear from our longstanding travellers about their continued eagerness to travel, tempered by an understanding that each individual carries a unique set of perspectives and circumstances that define when and how they will be ready to travel again to distant shores.

We recognise too that recent events have accelerated our understanding of the impact of travel on the world around us. Our eagerness to show you wonderful new places and people is tempered by an acceptance that our travel experiences can sometimes have an adverse impact on the communities and environments we visit. In recognition of this, we believe it’s important to limit the environmental impact of our tours where we can and to maximise the benefits we can bring to the places we visit.

With all this in mind, as we look forward to hosting tours in 2022 and beyond, we are setting out 3 guiding principles to underpin our desire to connect wine, places and people.

Safe

We will continue to work to our general Covid protocols. In addition we will continue to have a specific set of tour protocols for each tour that we run.
For 2022 tour and until further notice we require our hosts and travellers to be vaccinated against Covid and to sign up to our tour protocols.

Flexible

You can change your booking to rebook another tour up to 90 days before the date the tour begins. The rebooking must be for a tour in the current or following calendar year (e.g. if you change your booking in February 2022 it must be to another tour in 2022 or 2023).
The rebooking can be to a tour that is planned but not yet released (in which case you go on a priority list at release).
For tours after July 2022, we will request the tour balance payment 90 days before travel.
Anyone who has a deposit from a booking from 2021 or before should allocate that deposit by March 31st 2022 to a future tour. The 90 day flexibility rule will still apply to these rebookings.
Alternatively, the unused deposits can be gifted to someone else who wishes to travel on a tour or you can request a refund (less any administration costs). If you make no decision about the use of your deposit by 31st March 2022, it becomes non refundable.

Sustainable

We will aim to limit the environmental impact of our tours in the following ways:

Stop using individual plastic water bottles, offering reusable alternatives
Reduce the average mileage of our tours
Reduce the number of flights needed per tour, in preparation and tour running
Use local food, wine visits and producers wherever possible
Reduce the printed handouts on tours, using online alternatives where possible
Limit emissions from our buses on tour, turning off the bus when not in use and using electric vehicles where possible
Reduce the use of plastic bags on tour
Take account of the sustainability policies of our hotels when choosing them