(Business Lounge – Travel) The spectacular mountains of Trentino in northern Italy provided a memorable backdrop for FINE #WineTourism Marketplace Italy, the official B2B trade fair dedicated to the wine tourism sector. Held on October 27 and 28, 2026, at the Riva del Garda Exhibition Centre, the event brought together wineries, wine tourism destinations, and international tour operators. Against a landscape of dramatic limestone cliffs, green slopes, and picturesque towns, the marketplace showed how wine can become much more than a product to be tasted: it can be a gateway to local culture, food, landscapes, and the people who make each destination unique.
The FINE event sign beneath the dramatic limestone cliffs of Trentino.
FINE has a history of more than 15 years in Valladolid, Spain, where it developed into an established international meeting for professionals in wine tourism. The event connects wine producers and tourism businesses with travel professionals seeking distinctive experiences for their clients. After building its presence in Spain, the organisers expanded into the Italian market two years ago, creating another opportunity to present the country’s rich wine heritage to a global audience.
Connecting Wine Producers with International Travel Markets
The Trentino edition brought together approximately 90 invited international tour operators from across Europe, the Americas, China, and India. Their participation reflected the growing importance of wine tourism in the international travel industry, where visitors increasingly seek experiences that combine gastronomy, local traditions, authentic encounters, and beautiful natural surroundings. For tour operators, such meetings offer an opportunity to discover new destinations and develop travel packages for clients looking for something beyond conventional sightseeing.
The format also creates opportunities for direct business connections between wine producers and tourism professionals. Exhibitors can introduce not only their wines but also the stories behind their vineyards, the character of their regions, and the experiences visitors can enjoy on location. These encounters can help transform an individual wine purchase into a broader tourism proposition, generating potential demand for accommodation, restaurants, guided tours, cultural attractions, and other local services.
The mountain landscape and green spaces surrounding the town offer a striking setting for wine tourism.
A Showcase of Italy’s Regional Diversity
The exhibitors represented a broad geographical range, including northern Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia, alongside participants from Slovenia and Spain. This diversity gave international buyers an opportunity to explore different wine-producing territories in one professional setting. Each region brings its own landscape, culinary traditions, grape varieties, and cultural identity, giving tour operators a wide selection of experiences to incorporate into their itineraries.
The exhibitors presented their wines alongside local food, highlighting the close relationship between wine and gastronomy. Food connects the flavour of a wine to the agricultural traditions, ingredients, and everyday life of the region where it is produced. For international travellers, tasting wine with local dishes can make a destination more memorable and provide a stronger reason to visit the vineyards themselves.
Trentino’s Landscape Becomes Part of the Experience
The setting added another dimension to the event. Trentino’s mountainous scenery, vineyards, historic settlements, and outdoor attractions provide a natural environment for combining wine experiences with other forms of tourism. Visitors can build itineraries around winery visits, regional cuisine, scenic drives, cultural exploration, and outdoor activities, creating a more complete holiday rather than a single-purpose trip.
International tourism professionals meet at the marketplace, including the Warsaw Dispatch table.
Wine tourism can encourage travellers to explore places beyond major cities, spend more time in rural communities, and discover smaller producers whose businesses are closely connected to local landscapes. When these experiences are supported by tour operators and destination organisations, the economic benefits can extend to a wider network of hospitality and service businesses.
Turning Professional Meetings into Long-Term Opportunities
FINE’s expansion from Valladolid to the Italian market illustrates how an established professional platform can extend its reach while adapting to different regional identities. Bringing international buyers directly to a wine-producing destination gives exhibitors a chance to communicate not only the quality of their products but also the wider experience their regions can offer. The challenge is to turn these introductions into practical itineraries, lasting commercial relationships, and visits that generate value for local communities.
The mountains rise above the town and transport facilities in the Trentino area.
In Trentino, the mountains offered a striking reminder of what makes wine tourism distinctive: the connection between a product and the place that gives it character. The wines presented at the marketplace carried stories of vineyards, traditions, and regional expertise, while the surrounding landscape suggested the experiences visitors could discover for themselves. By bringing producers and international tour operators together at the Riva del Garda Exhibition Centre, FINE #WineTourism Marketplace Italy created a meeting point between wine culture and global travel, opening further possibilities for Italy and other European destinations in the expanding world of wine tourism.