Receives
Top Award For Wine-Tourism
Food
& Wine Trails
owner awarded Worlds Top Travel Specialists award
for
Wine tourism from Conde Naste Traveler Magazine.
Conde
Naste recognizes wine-tourism as a new travel trend.
Santa
Rosa CA, July 28, 2008 -- Wine tourism became a more
recognized travel segment, when Conde Naste Traveler awarded
Food & Wine Trails owner Larry Martin, as one of their 128
Worlds Top Travel Specialists. Mr. Martin was recognized in
the category of Wine Programs, which was a first-time category
inclusion added to the Magazines other specialty travel segments
such as Cruise travel, Family travel, Spa travel, Culinary travel,
and Gay/Lesbian travel
The
award was announced in the Conde Naste Travelers current August
issue, and will be presented to Mr. Martin and his co-owner
and wife, Laura, at a gala ceremony in New York City on October
14th.
Conde
Naste Traveler is one of the worlds most popular travel magazines,
so this award is a great honor for myself and for the many other
wine touring companies around the world, says HMS owner and
President Larry Martin. It validates that wine-tourism is a
bona fide and growing travel trend.
A
2007 study sponsored by the Travel Industry of America (TIA)
found that 27 million U.S leisure travelers have participated
in some kind of food and wine travel in the last 3 years.
Although
there are no statistics on wine tourism by itself that I know
of, says Martin, I believe it has experienced the same popularity
growth as wine consumption has among Americans. Global travel
is growing at approximately 4% a year 1, while US wine consumption
is expanding at approximately 5% a year.
Given
that there are now literally thousands of companies around the
world that offer wine-travel, its an extreme honor to be recognized
in this first-time award-category for Conde Naste Martin added.
Conde
Naste undertakes a rigorous selection process for their Top
Travel Specialist award, states editor Wendy Perrin in the article.
Only a small number (of applicants) make the cut. Our specialists
have undergone a screening process that begins with a 47 item
questionnaire with sample itineraries and client references,
then continues with phone interviews and in most cases, road
testing by Conde Naste staff.
Larry
Martins specialty is wine touring, an area handled by Food &
Wine Trails, which is the educational-travel side of the HMS
Travel Group. Food & Wine Trails operates programs in all
the major wine regions of the world, and has created travel
experiences for such nationally recognized clients as the Culinary
Institute of America, Robert Mondavi Winery, The American Wine
Society and the Smithsonian Institute. HMS Travel is based in
the Sonoma Wine Country of California and is celebrating its
25th anniversary this year.
Food and Wine Trails
707A 4th Street
Santa Rosa CA 95404
(707) 526-2922
http://foodandwinetrails.com
