Wine tourism in France

International audienceThis chapter devoted to wine tourism in France, could not hope to present an exhaustive overview of all the initiatives implemented in the numerous and various France’s vineyards, nor their performance. Instead, we choose to start with the publication in 2007 of the Dubrule report, which first called for a veritable national strategy for this “hybrid” activity, which until then had without doubt been insufficiently developed. We then outline the main characteristics of wine tourism in France and its evolution towards what can be called “a desire for the territories”, incorporating fundamental changes such as experiential dimensions that are necessary for the creation of true wine tourism destinations. We then illustrate our point with some notable, classic or innovative, sustainable and sometimes emblematic initiatives of certain vineyards. We conclude with the main challenges for the future, drawing particular attention to the importance of answering eco-tourism requirements in addition to a necessary cultural and heritage mix as a key success factor for wine tourism projects