(Guardian) - Bubbly brought fame and fortune to Champagne, and now, since being named a Unesco world heritage site in July, the region hopes more tourists will make it a holiday destination. Same for Burgundy, whose vineyards are already a big draw – it, too, is now on Unesco’s roll of honour. The double good news marks a major gain for France, which is trying hard to make wine a pillar of its tourist economy.

Laurent Fabius, the country’s foreign minister and a strong backer of tourism, has made the wine sector a priority. His goal is to attract 100 million tourists to France, up from 82 million in 2012, with wine as one of the principal draws. According to a 2010 study by the tourism development agency Atout France (Rendezvous En France, in English), a third of visitors say they choose their destination based on, among other things, food and wine. The agency estimates 7.5 million people a year tour the country’s wineries, including 2.5 million foreign visitors.

France’s wine industry has long promoted tourism, and that has helped smaller producers survive. Indeed, tourism has become an essential part of their business, as important as promoting their wines at trade shows and, of course, exporting them.

It’s difficult to say how much is bought by tourists on site, but the income from direct sales contributes appreciably to the more than €12bn ($13bn) annual sales of wine in France, according to a 2013 study by the government’s FranceAgriMer agency. “We sell 40% of our production to visitors who’ve come to see us and another 30% goes to export,” said Florian Beck-Hartweg, who runs an organic vineyard in the east Alsatian commune of Dambach-la-Ville. “There has to be one person on staff at all times for cellar tours and tastings. Afterwards, our clients keep up with us on Facebook. We post news almost every day on what we’re doing. Social networks allow us to stay in touch.”