Wine routes: Development of wine regions and local communities

Wine tourism an emerging tourism product, has an increasingly important role in the wine regions’ development and promotion (Bras, 2010). Wine tourism was born from the union of two completely different industries (Hjalager & Richards, 2002): wine industry which is typically oriented to the product and for the wine production and tourism which works to accommodate the tourist. Each wine-growing region has been developing various forms of wine tourism, through wine fairs and festivals, the constitution of wine museums and enoteca / interpretation centers, visits to wineries and cellars, visits to vineyards and farms, wine tastings, wine-growing spas, wine-growing villages and wine routes (Costa, 2014). Wine routes are privileged instruments for the organization and dissemination of wine tourism (Correia, 2005), were created in Europe from the post-war period (Hall & Mitchell, 2000) and comprise one or more signaled pathways that run through a wine region (Brás, Costa, & Buhalis, 2010). Wine routes can help redesign the economies of rural areas (Scherrer, Alonso, & Sheridan, 2009), are an important tourist product in the world (Correia, Passos Ascenção, & Charters, 2004). The National Tourism Strategic Plan (2012), have on the analysis of the great trends of international demand, identified the gastronomy and the wine as one of the ten strategic products for the development of the national tourism (MEE, 2012). The cultivation of vines and the consumption of wine in Portugal are older than their own nationality (Hall & Mitchell, 2000). Wine consumption is associated with relaxation, social interaction and hospitality (Barber, Taylor & Deale, 2010). Portugal is one of the largest wine producers in the world (IVV, 2014). Wine production is one of the activities that have contributed most to the development of the economy (Guedes, 2006). The wine routes are one of the most visible aspects of the practice of wine tourism in Portugal (Simões, 2008). They were created by the initiative of wine producers in 1993 to increase the promotion and sale of their products and to develop the tourism potential of the different wine-growing regions in several areas, such as: culture, history, traditions, built heritage and landscape (Costa & Kastenholz, 2009). Wine routes are nowadays considered as a tourism product with great potential for the development of tourist destinations (Jurincic & Bojnec, 2009). This work aims at analyzing wine routes as a means of developing wine-growing regions, economically, socially and environmentally, and as an opportunity to promote positive images of wine-growing regions, using as a methodological support a literature review. It is also intended to propose an empirical study of the two aspects of wine routes in Portugal: (i) supply, in particular the characteristics and conditions of the routes; and (ii) search, specifically the profile of the wine tourist, his motivations, image of the wine tourism destinations and their degree of satisfaction.