Wine tourism in Spain: The case of three wine regions

By far the main focus of contemporary wine tourism research has been in \u27New World\u27 regions, while it appears to be under development in much of the \u27Old World.\u27 The present study adds to this underdeveloped body of research in that it addresses a range of wine tourism development issues, across three prominent \u27Old World\u27 wine regions: La Mancha, La Rioja and Penedès. A total of 94 wineries participated in the study. Respondents\u27 answers and comments indicate that while many of the participating wineries are several generati-ons, or centuries, old, wine tourism appears to be in its \u27tentative\u27 stages, that is, only star-ting to gain momentum. One positive aspect is that most participants (68.1%) indicated that their wineries are open to the public mainly to generate interest for their wine brands among visitors, while 61.7% use the cellar door to educate customers, thus demonstrating wineries\u27 longer-term strategy to \u27convert\u27 visitors to brand loyalty through wine tourism. Given the critical role tourism plays for Spain\u27s economy, with over 50 million visitors per year, these findings can have important implications for the long term sustainability of the wine industry in many of the nation\u27s wine regions