An overview of marketing opportunities in wine tourism with special reference to Malta

Abstract

Wine tourism has become the latest ‘buzz word’ in niche tourism marketing along with the slow-food movement. It is growing in popularity in traditional wine-making regions, such as Italy and France (old world wine), but also in the new world of wine production, namely Australia, New Zealand, and America where wine tourism is a major industry. This has been assisted by the prominent sales and exposure of their wines globally. As a result, most available research in this field has been conducted in the new world and wine-makers have a good, although not conclusive understanding of their consumers and also the wine tourist. It is an important segment with many governments supporting initiatives undertaken by wineries as they understand the value of such a market and its ‘knock on’ effect on the local economy and other areas of industry such as accommodation, restaurants, and farmers. Since Malta has a tradition of wine-making, critical success factors as identified by Getz et al (2006) were considered in a Maltese context to determine its potential as a wine tourism destination. Although, Malta does exhibit many positive criteria for success in this area, there are also many challenges. There is the need for substantial academic research in this area and further co-operation between various stakeholders, both private and public, in order to create a synergy that could determine a positive economic outcome and opportunity.