This month (24^th to 27^th January 2009) the Hotel Port Sitges Resort, Sitges (Barcelona) will host the first Wine Pleasures International Wine Tourism Conference and Workshop. This conference will be the largest of its kind and has already attracted over 150 wine tourism professionals from more than 30 countries.

The conference is unique in that will enable each delegate to tailor-make their own conference programme. This is achieved by running 3 seminars at any one time. This allows the delegate to choose the seminar of most interest and/or relevance and avoiding ones which are of little interest. Around 40 seminars will be delivered over two and a half days.

A programme of evening activities and coach trips to nearby wineries and places of cultural interest will enable delegates and speakers a chance to socialise and network.

On the 26 and 27th wine experience providers and international tour operators and travel agents will have the chance to hold private one-to-one meetings in a workshop setting. Wine experience providers enrolled mainly include wineries, hotels and incoming agents. Most participating wineries in the workshop are not Spanish. Portuguese wineries will be well represented and there is even a winery coming all the way from Namibia to participate in the Conference and workshop.

Participating tour operators and travel agents making the journey to Sitges at their own expense will be coming from countries such as Estonia, Latvia, USA, UK, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Holland, Germany, Belgium, and India. All have a very high interest in either expanding their current wine tourism business or are looking to start to add this niche market tourism to their product portfolios.

Parallel to the Conference programme a small group of 12 travel agents will be participating in a 5 day Fam Trip which includes visits to wineries, hotels, restaurants and places of cultural interest in the following wine regions of Spain: Cava, Conca de Barberà, Montsant, Penedès and Priorat. This same group will also participate in the workshop as buyers. On their final day (28^th) they will participate in a wine country bike tour through the Conca de Barberà and Costers del Segre wine regions and ending in a small white wine producer (DO Costers del Segre).

There are still a few places available to attend as a delegate at the Conference and also to participate in the Workshop as a buyer or provider. Fam Trip is full.