Wine tourism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Wine tourism - Essay Example Gastronomic supply is therefore increasingly shaped by tourist demand, highlighting the considerable potential wine and gastronomic products have in national and international tourist markets. Taking the region as the basic context of all tourist products, this paper analyses wine and gastronomic components of the product in detail, trying to underline the added value of aggregating or network logic in the development of typical agro-alimentary products and tourism.In many European countries, the situation of wine tourism appears to be complex and variegated, but also dynamic and rich in social, cultural and economic implications (Mitchell, 2000, 115-35). In order to realize its potential, it is essential that all actors involved implement a common entrepreneurial logic integrating wine tourism into the global tourist offer. In theory, this would allow them to take advantage of the strong synergies that can be achieved and to transform local land planning into a crucial instrument fo r sustainable development policy. Wine tourism is now emerging as one of the most promising segments of the tourism sector. Nevertheless, organizational and managerial capabilities lag behind in many places. It is highly likely that networks are needed to build an efficient and competitive network, to market high quality products and to safeguard the region's positive image. It is also an assumption in this paper that it is important to identify and encourage agricultural development through specialized and typical regional products, which can be protected and promoted through legislation, such as the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union. This will provide the basis for a solid and durable success both in tourism and agriculture, engendering revenue and employment benefits, especially in less developed areas. Rural Tourism and Wine Tourism: New Trends in the Tourist Market Alternative forms of tourism, which place emphasis on greater contact and understanding between tourists and the environment, emerged relatively recently. The various forms of environmental tourism can be grouped under the generic term of 'rural tourism', mainly practised away from traditional tourism destinations such as seaside and mountain resorts and art cities. Rural areas provide the backdrop for various forms of tourist behaviour, including sports, horse-riding, hunting, tasting wine and gastronomic products and learning about cooking, bird watching, photography, etc. (Goldsmith, 2001, 77-80). Rural tourism has long been considered a second-choice product, reserved for people with limited resources, who chose the countryside because they could not afford more attractive destinations. The re-discovery of tradition essentially based on typical products and rural lifestyles has only recently brought about a new rural tourism which is quite often able to offer high-standard services in terms of prices and quality. The new specific demand for environmental interaction in authentic settings (Spawton, 2005, 19-21) is deeply entrenched in the rural environment: tourists are interested in nature and tradition. 'Real' rural tourism only started to develop in the 1980s. From this point of view, local culture and the natural features of a rural environment become the real highlights. In the specific case of wine tourism, wine and other typical products of the local cuisine become real tourist attractions and a motivation to visit the countryside. Such motivations can be either exclusive - gastronomic