The maturing wine tourism product: an international overview

Abstract

This chapter explores the developmental approaches employed in various parts of the world and provides details of various aspects of wine tourism product development, such as winery visits and cellar door sales, guided wine tourism, wine roads and trails, and festivals and events. It examines the emergence of wine tourism in both 'Old World' European wine regions and 'New World' wine regions. The chapter highlights catalysts such as rural decline, economic restructuring and industry decline, and changing consumer preferences and industry growth. Wine tourism and the active development and marketing of the wine tourism product is a relatively phenomenon, even in the European countries with a long established wine-producing history which are usually collectively described as 'Old World' wine regions. Other European countries such as Hungary, Moldova and Portugal have begun to establish wine routes in an effort to develop related cultural and rural tourism.