Drought, bushfires, smoke taint and now coronavirus have "significantly" impacted Hunter Valley wine country in the past four months, according to figures released by the Hunter Valley Wine and Tourism Association (HVWTA) on Friday.
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A "conservative calculation" puts the current economic loss to the visitor economy at $76 million between November 2019 and March 2020.
HVWTA chief executive Amy Cooper said the average of harvested grapes was "down significantly due to smoke taint".
Ms Cooper said 80 per cent of winemakers in the region reporting they had picked less than 50 per cent of their crop compared to the previous vintage.
"Within this, an additional 43 per cent have picked less than 80 per cent of their crop compared to last year," she said.
Former Governor General Peter Cosgrove, in his role as chairman of BizRebuild, met with winemakers and experts on Friday to discuss the impact on local businesses.
BizRebuild is a charitable initiative of the Business Council of Australia, supporting national bushfire recovery efforts by helping local business, securing jobs and re-establishing key industries such as agriculture and tourism.
Hunter Valley Wine Country employs 2800 people - 63 percent in tourism and 37 percent in winemaking and viticulture.
The Hunter Valley attracts 1.4 million visitors annually, and the HVWTA represents more than 130 wine producers, 2300 hectares of vineyards, 27 restaurants and bars, 57 tourism attractions and over 120 accommodation and conferencing facilities.
One in five Hunter Valley Wine Country businesses indicated their visitations were down by more than 60 percent in the past three months, and 82 percent reported a loss in revenue in this period.
The tourism sector - encompassing accommodation, tour operators, activities and attractions, restaurants, cafes and bars - has been worst hit in March and in forward bookings, with over half of businesses in this sector forecasting visitation to be down more than 40 percent from March to November 2020.
"Hunter Valley Wine Country is Australia's oldest wine region at 192 years old, it is an internationally and domestic significant destination and economy that needs protection and assistance," Ms Cooper said.
"The HVWTA currently receives no local, state or federal funding. We are a membership-funded organisation, wholly responsible for the destination marketing of the most visited wine region in Australia and second most visited destination in NSW outside of Sydney."