Developing wine tourism: A case study of the attitude of English wine producers to wine tourism

Abstract

The development of wine tourism has been shown to have a possible positive effect for growers in wine producing areas. Examples of areas where studies have demonstrated this effect include Texas and Rioja. It is believed that the English wine producers, for the most part, are not organized to derive the maximum benefit from wine tourism. At present English vineyards are suffering from the general depression in British agriculture and vineyard owners would benefit from any additional income such as that which could be generated by tourist expenditure. A qualitative study conducted by the authors in 2001 and 2002 shows vineyard proprietors' attitudes to wine tourism and identify ways in which they think wine tourism in the UK can be encouraged and organized to the benefit of the wine producers. This paper will present findings of the study and, using secondary data, notably from the Texas Wine Marketing Research Institute, wine tourism practices in the UK will be compared with those in other wine producing regions. Preliminary findings show growing polarization in the UK wine production world between a small number of large producers, selling wine to major supermarkets, airlines and for export, and small life-style proprietors, becoming heavily dependent on cellar door sales. Findings also show a continuing lack of joint vineyard promotional activity whether organized by the producer, by central government, local government or by tourist authorities.