In the Old World rural economic restructuring and changed consumer preferences have been a major factor in encouraging the development of wine tourism. However, in the New World countries, especially the United States, Canada and Australia, consumer preferences have been towards greater wine consumption, and of a higher quality. The development of wine tourism has received explicit government assistance in the form of facilitating legislation, as in the United States and Canada (see Chapter 13), often in conjunction with network development and funding, as in the case of Australia (see Chapter 12).

In contrast to Europe, New World wine-producing countries such as the United States, New Zealand and Australia also exhibit high levels of wine tourism participation. For example, while Choisy (1996) and Mallon (1996) note that only around 5 per cent of wine producers in Burgundy are involved with tourism, and the Movimento del Turismo del Vino reports that only 3.2 per cent of Italian wine producers actively participate in tourism, Macionis (1997) notes that almost 90 per cent of Australian wine producers provide cellar door tasting facilities, while 60 per cent of New Zealand wineries offered cellar door sales in 1995 (Hall 1996).