Wine Tourism Development Report: Assessing Current Operations & Driving Sustainability

Background of Wine Region

Various trends have emerged in terms of  wine tourism. These include the rapid growth of wine tourism, the wineries getting unfolded as tourist attractions, the significance regarding the cellar door sales, as well as proliferating the wine festivals as well as events. Wine tourism is occurring in all states as well as territories within South Africa. The country is having around seventy-one wine regions. The tourism sector is comprising of elements from several industry sectors that includes transportation, accommodation, recreation and entertainment, travel services as well as food and beverage. In 2014-15, the Tourism Research South Africa estimated that there were 15.8 million domestic visitor nights as well as 44.2 million international visitor nights to the wineries in South Africa. The overall expenditure regarding this was around $9.2 billion (Cho, 2017).

The South African wine sector is making a major contribution to the economy of South Africa. This includes the economic activity related with the growth of grapes in the vineyards as well as production of wine. It is also extending to the activities of the economy from the wine related tourism. The economic activities, which includes employment regarding the tourism sector is required to be generated depending upon the levels of visitation as well as expenses (Cho, 2017).

A consumer research was conducted throughout 15 major tourist markets in South Africa. The research showcased that ‘great wine, food, local cuisine as well as produce’ was an essential issue impacting the decision-making for holidays, which is 38%.

There is the emergence of the wineries in South Africa as the places for major tourist attractions. Through the addition of the quality restaurants, gift shops, special events, meeting rooms as well as accommodation, the wineries are having the capability towards capturing longer visits as well as enhancing their revenue throughout the year. These places, being self-contained will be offering the cultural or rural tourists, an exclusive experience of wine country. There is the scope of the small wineries towards getting into the tourism market via the bread and breakfast accommodations or offering meals to groups (Jones, 2015). Many more options are available to the larger wineries. On the other hand, a threat is associated with the fact that the restaurants as well as other product developments might not be profitable due to the rising competition within the wineries. There is occurring the proliferation of the wine festivals, associated food festivals as well as wine trade shows. Such festivals as well as events will be attracting new as well as repeat visitors, particularly outside the major tourist seasons as well as traffic areas regarding tourists, which will assist in developing a positive destination image themed on wine as well as mobilizing new associations amongst wine, tourism, event sponsors as well as the community (Gomez, 2015).

Within South Africa, the Wineries Tourism Council is providing immense support towards the creation as well as marketing of the events regarding wine in each and every of its wine regions. One of the significant successes of the state is related with the aspect of establishing various wine festivals. The Wineries Tourism Council is having an annual events grant scheme that is drawing approx. 100,000 South African dollars in funding for matching the budgets regarding the events and it is producing quality guidelines in respect of events receiving their support (Koch, 2013). The scheme is concentrating upon the generation of new wine events, rather than towards the condition relating to the operating funds. The attendance relating to the growth at wine events had a steadfast growth. (Hall, 2016).

SWOT Analysis of Wine Tourism in Walker Bay Region

The relation within food as well as wine is an essential part regarding the lifestyle experience of a wine region. Food is a major element regarding wine tourism and is underpinning the experience of the visitors. Therefore, the aspect of establishing food outlets on the wineries will be highlighting the quality associated with the regional produce, which will add more economic worth regarding the individual winery as well as the area. Then, there is aspect of recognizing the requirement towards the formalized planning of the regions for wine. These areas are providing a lucid all-inclusive tourist destination that encompasses attractions, transport as well as accommodations (Molina, 2015).

Along with the dynamic growth in developing wine tourism, certain factors as well as challenges are influencing the future industrial growth. These are as follows,

• The generational challenge – Although, it has been found out via research study that the baby boomers will be dominating the consumption of wine as well as wine tourism in the coming few decades but the main questions is what will happen after that. The current years are considered to be the boom years in respect of wine as well as wine tourism, and the industries are required capitalizing on these presently. But this growth might not be continuing forever. By certain means the younger generations needs to be brought into the cultural aspect of food as well as wine. Price is a key related factor in this regard (Pratt, 2014).
• The environmental challenge – The primary environmental challenge is associated with the aspect of preserving as well as enhancing the resources on which the sustainable wine tourism is resting which includes soils, lands regarding grapes, water in respect of irrigation, support of the community as well as cultural authenticity. If wine tourism will be leading towards mass tourism, then many small towns as well as rural areas will be suffering from blockage. Therefore, it is necessary that wine tourism should always be remaining as a niche market that stresses on the high-yielding, high-quality visitors that are coming in respect of the special attractiveness relating to the distinctive traits of the wine region (Grimstad, 2014).
• The challenge of co-operation – The wine industry has formed efficient partnerships with food, tourism as well as hospitality, securing strong community as well as political assistance as well as demonstrating the advantages relating to wine tourism. A regional planning process relating to wine tourism can be regarded as the tool towards the attainment of these objectives.
• The competitive challenge – Wine tourism is considered being a highly competitive specialty market and there is occurring a rapid growth relating to competition. This unprecedented development has been leading to the rise in wineries, a growth regarding aggressive locations as well as increasingly complex marketing (Bruwer, 2013).

INTERNAL
Strengths	Weaknesses
· The willingness as well as assurance regarding the aspect of proactively developing, investing, as well as adopting new techniques as well as technological aspects. · There is a strong need in respect of many wine businesses towards building the volume of sales directly focusing towards the channels for customers. To achieve this, wine tourism is considered being an essential strategic aspect. · Having the presence of quality venues, the region has turned out to be a well-known place of entertainment for the tourists having a penchant for good quality wine consumption. · The region is also providing the experience of savouring nice food at the national award winning restaurants (Bowe, 2015).	· There is a limited non-road access to the region. Therefore, it is not being able to attract more number of tourists. · As because there are poor roads or cycle paths as well as poor local signage, the tourists find it quite challenging to reach the place and as a result, hampering the smooth in-flow of tourists to the region. · The place is not having adequate WIFI as well as 3G service and therefore, creates a lot of difficulty for the tourists. The tourists find it quite difficult to get good internet connectivity from that region. · The region is not having any large convention facilities. This is also a major weakness because the tourism companies are not able to hold major conferences at this place for promoting wine tourism (Festa, 2015).
EXTERNAL
Opportunities · The wine and tourism industry that is well established within the region is having the opportunity for combining their immense resources, skills as well as knowledge for developing a structure to improve the quality of wine tourism in the region. · There is also the opportunity for developing the taste for South African food and wine amongst the tourists who are coming to visit the region. Food is considered being a major element of wine tourism and the synergy as well as quality regarding the local food as well as premium wine experience is providing a competitive marketing advantage for the region. · There is the opportunity for more effective use of the high potential leisure recreation experiences at different places. · There is also the scope of a steady growth in the international visitor market from different countries (Ruhanen, 2015).	Threats · There is a significant threat associated with the rapid growth of destination competition. · The increase in wine tourism is also posing a threat for the environmental condition of the region.

The major stakeholders within that region are the government, the tourism operators, local businesses, tour suppliers, customers as well as Council staffs. It is essential for the stakeholders at the Walker Bay region to function in a united way for growing the capability of the destination as well as ensuring sustainable, economic as well as industry development. The strong unity will assist in partnering on major projects as well as to achieve an universal platform in respect of booking accommodation, events as well as operations (Grimstad, 2014). The opportunities related to funding as well as planning will be having a connection with the South African Government’s Visitor Economy Taskforce Report as well as Action Plan. In this context, it can be stated that the global tourists will be having the encouragement for travelling due to the South African dollar’s strength, and the domestic tourists will be having the encouragement in touring within South Africa. All the stakeholders are required ensuring that they are pursuing excellence towards keeping the Walker Bay sregion at the forefront of the South African economy (Croce, 2017).

There are certain factors that will be influencing the development and sustainability of wine tourism in the Walker Bay region. The factors are considered to be significant in respect of future success regarding wine tourism that includes the product quality, nature of the experience, winery appeal, effective marketing as well as co-ordinated development. Along with that, there is the requirement of undertaking more research regarding every aspects of the industry.

• Product Quality – The basis of wine tourism was judged to be quality associated with the wine, the quality of experience of the wine region, the quality of the local cuisine as well as the quality of services that are offered to the tourists that are visiting this place. Poor quality wine will not be attracting many tourists. The tourists should be receiving the services that are of high quality as well as enjoying their experience for ensuring better reputation as well as visiting again to the region(Alonso, 2015).
• Nature of the experience – To understand the intentions as well as benefits that the wine tourists are seeking is considered being an essential factor for achieving success. While a significant amount of consumer research regarding this essential factor is required, the industry professionals are well placed for knowing extensively about what attracts the target client base. Moreover, there is the requirement for scopes regarding quality dining as well as other traits for creating a distinctive experience as well as atmosphere, particularly for short-breaks. This might be including a large number of cultural opportunities, particularly festivals as well as events(Carlsen, 2015).
• Winery Appeal – It is strongly believed that the tourists are coming to the region basically for the wine. They are interested in tasting the wine prior to the purchase, finding exclusive offers as well as learning about the process as well as the Walker Bay region. The part of the appeal includes meeting with the owners as well as the winemakers, however, friendly and informative staffs are considered to be very much necessary for satisfying the customers. In addition, there is the requirement for having friendly employees as well as better service, especially related with the aspect of influencing the purchase of wine at the wineries (Popp, 2016).
• Effective Marketing – String techniques of marketing is necessary to foster wine tourism. Key marketing efforts will be including joint endeavours regarding marketing, which will involve wine as well as tourism industries. It is focusing on the target market as well as communications, branding as well as enhancement of the image, as well as packaging (Byrd, 2016).
• Co-ordinated development – Since, effective co-ordination is an essential requirement for the development of wine tourism, there is the need for co-operation within the tourism as well as the wine industry. The key factors for development will be including the aspects of training the staffs in respect of wine knowledge as well as quality of services, to achieve a essential gathering of wineries, wine country tours as well as a programme relating to special events.
• Need for research – Wine tourism will be creating various beneficial aspects, which will occur on both the national as well as local scales, and is having the potentiality towards provide a strong competitive advantage for the region having a grape and wine industry as well as generating profitable business in respect of the wineries. There is the need for research to determining the correlation that is existing within the consumers as well as opinions of the industries. The suppliers, organizers as well as customers are shaping the wine tourism method (Pratt, 2014).

Conclusion 

There is a bright future ahead of wine tourism. It is in a period of growing identification as well as interest of the customers. This requires the close association within all the different sectors regarding the wine as well as tourism industries. Walker Bay is required implementing a signage policy for ensuring that the wine routes are attractive regarding the independent travellers. The Walker Bay region is required having a successful positioning in regard to at least, one wine event as it’s ‘hallmark’ event, which will attract national as well as global publicity to the region. In addition, there is also the need for establishing wine tourism planning and management committees in the Walker Bay region.

• The wine tourism industry of Walker Bay region will be growing as well as maturing into a globally recognized premier location for wine tourism, when the government as well as the wine tourism industry will be fostering a symbiotic partnership for capitalizing on as well as further developing various competitive advantages.
• In addition, this can also get actualized by building responsiveness as well as perception via the growth of a wine tourism cultural aspect,
• Establishment of the industry standards as well as establishment of training and development
• Implementation of research and the coordination within the government, tourism as well as wine industries particularly in the wine regions such as Walker Bay

References 

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Bowe, J., Lockshin, L., Rungie, C., & Lee, R. (2015). Wine and Tourism: A Good Blend Goes a Long Way. In Ideas in Marketing: Finding the New and Polishing the Old (pp. 309-312). Springer, Cham.

Bruwer, J., Coode, M., Saliba, A., & Herbst, F. (2013). Wine tourism experience effects of the tasting room on consumer brand loyalty. Tourism Analysis, 18(4), 399-414.

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