Once
upon a time, almost ten years ago, a woman struck out on her own to
promote an interactive wine-touring guide she created for
publication on the World Wide Web. Her plan was to develop a
comprehensive and informative, one-stop website for people like
herself... people who were interested in the wines, wineries and
wine country regions of the Pacific Northwest. It would be a
gateway to information about all these things related... including maps, wine
reviews, wine-country events and news, suggestions for nearby
dining, lodging and local area wine shops; it would allow visitors
to plan their own tours without needing to leave the website.
Today, Susan O'Hara, founder of Wines Northwest, reflects on not only
the astonishing growth of her own website, but on the now-common use
of the Web by a majority of the population in many countries
throughout the world.
"It's not just
the growth of the Web that led to the expansion and popularity of Wines
Northwest," O'Hara notes. "More to the point is the explosion
of interest in wine and wine-country tourism over the last 10 years.
I am a very lucky woman to have started Wines Northwest when I
did... and what a great ride it has been."
Enthusiasm and dogged determination, O'Hara has been told throughout her working life,
are her strongest assets. It was that enthusiasm and
determination, combined with her
intuition about the coming importance of the Web,
that urged O'Hara to venture out and meet with wineries throughout
the Northwest to win their support of her then unproven website
concept. Her
predictions of benefits to come for those who chose to
subscribe to her interactive wine-country tour guide were
hard to believe 10 years ago. Today, those benefits are
obvious and documented.
"Back in
1997, maybe one
winery in 50 had their own website," remembers O'Hara.
"Now, probably one out of 100 does not."
Much of O'Hara's
time on the road 10 years ago was spent helping winery personnel understand how the
Web worked, who was using it then and how they could benefit from
marketing their wineries to that audience.
"I always included
information about the growth in the number of users over the most
recent six-month period," says O'Hara, "to give them a sense of what was happening
out there."
Over the past 10-years O'Hara developed, maintained and expanded Wines |
| Northwest; she has seen and responded to vast
changes within the Pacific Northwest wine industry and the wine-tourism
services that support it. The total number of wineries (adding
together those of Idaho, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia)
grew from approximately 300 in 1997 to almost 900 today! The
total number of vineyard acres in production has almost tripled as
well, and wine shops, wine bars and wine-friendly restaurants have
grown by incalculable numbers.
"Does anyone know what the next ten years hold," wonders O'Hara.
"I sure don't, but you can bet I'll be celebrating my first
10-year milestone next year!"
| Special Thanks to:
Denise Mabry Hood (as true a friend as there could be) for her
fabulous brainstorming and listening skills, to say nothing of her
enthusiastic support and can-do attitude;
Irene Kibler (friend
and mother) for her consistent love, support and
prayers;
Ralph Stinton (friend, founder and owner of
Grape Escape Winery Tours, and
my very first customer) for his enthusiast support, his creative and
pragmatic business sense and his camaraderie.
The wineries of Idaho,
Oregon, Washington and B.C. that became the charter
subscribers to the fledgling WinesNorthwest.com.
Thanks for believing in me.
You and millions of other
wine enthusiasts that have visited and used
WinesNorthwest.com. Truly, you are our lifeblood.
Many, many thanks! |
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