A group of international scholars in tourism and wine research together with representatives of the tourist and wine industries held their 8th Annual Iberoamerican Seminar at the University of Talca (Talca, Chile) on 9–11 November 2006. Talca is situated in a Mediterranean region that produces 60% of Chilean wine exports. The seminar, attended by more than 50 participants from six countries, aimed at presenting and discussing state-of-the-art knowledge on the relationship between tourism and wine in today's context and at building a multi-disciplinary and international network of researchers.
Fifteen papers and two workshops elaborated on various aspects of the linkage between tourism and wine. Invited speaker José Negrin (University of Castilla, Spain) discussed ‘culture in wine’ and ‘wine in culture’ as key relationships to generate sustainable marketing strategies. Another invited speaker, Juan Blánquez (A. University of Madrid, Spain) summarized the evolution and spread of wine museums in Spain. Based on official compulsory standards, those museums moved from a role of custodians of captured patrimony to centers of wine tourism, re-directing the flow of visitors from overcrowded areas to wine landscapes.
Next, experts on various areas of knowledge, such as business, economics, history, anthropology, sociology, town planning, and the arts presented their positions and led interesting discussions on the tourism and wine relationship (TWR). Confirming and expanding the museum and wine linkage, two innovative museums were exemplified, one in Spain and one in Chile. The Aragon Wine Museum was characterized as a wine route involving historic and cultural patrimony, small villages, medieval cathedrals, monasteries, and wineries. The Chilean Wine Museum was portrayed as a learning center to get acquainted with a large collection of wine-making equipment from the 18th century.
A dramatic TWR approach is taken in Argentina. Wine festivals, such as the Mendoza Wine Festival, are used to attract visitors (about 800,000 last year) who attend the festival to watch a Greek drama, analogy used by Marco Marchonni (Regional Center for Science and Technology Research, Argentina). The drama occurs when thousands of workers at the local wineries move around the town using allegorical vehicles and handshaking city dwellers and visitors watching the show. A less dramatic approach is taken in the Calchaquies Valley (north-east Argentina) where wine grows at a high altitude (above 2500 m o.s.l.) and is treated as a historical, ecological and cultural patrimony within a tourism development project in Tucumán. Some other projects in Argentina are designed to escape rural decay and urban prominence in formerly winemaking areas, including the rescue of a former School of Agronomy and Viticulture, as part of a historical wine route project in Mendoza.
The Chilean TWR experience is focused on the development of wine routes. Some Chilean wineries are eagerly adding tourist value to its resuscitated cepage, Carmenere. This especially rich wine had been lost in Europe due to a plague and re-discovered in Chile 160 years after. To show how Chileans are using the advantage, two currently operating wine routes each linking 16 vineyards were included in the seminar. The Maule Wine Route involved visits to wineries, wine tasting, visits to colonial small towns, craft-making, and Carmenere Nights. The Curicó Wine Route included the famous Miguel Torres winery, where wine festivals, night-time harvesting, and a single daytrip from the Andes to the sea were initiated some years ago in order to promote its products among European wine distributors. Such traditions are now replicated in other Chilean wineries.
The talk on wine routes, a tourism alternative, focused on two views. A community-based method in the design of wine routes was presented and discussed by Pablo Szmulewicz (Austral University, Chile). The approach included market analysis, associative promotion, leadership and trust attitudes, market testing, and needed financial, environmental and economic assessment. The second presentation by Jorge Zamora (University of Talca, Chile) focused on the survival strategy used by some wineries in Chile. A company initiative to alleviate wine industry losses, gave way to tourist activities including wine tasting and visits to wineries, which generated significant cash. The presenter underscored the importance of changing the strategic focus from production (wine) to service and marketing (tourism) for Chileans to benefit even more in the future.
The TWR was also discussed from some non-business perspectives including the arts, architecture and psychology. Wine has been a source of inspiration for artists in all ages and it has already generated thematic wine tourism. Mary Estella (Institute for Higher Education Salvador Dalí, Spain), reported painting on the vine and wine, based on collections shown in Madrid and Paris galleries. Frequent images in these paintings are vineyard farming, grapes, winemaking, wine trade, and wine drinking throughout the ages in a dozen styles and techniques.
Wine architecture and social life were often combined in vineyards and winemaking facilities in both Spain and the Spanish American colonies (Chile, Argentina, Mexico and Peru) between the 16th and 18th centuries, as reported by Estela Premat (National University of Cuyo, Argentina) and Pablo Lacoste (University of Talca, Chile). Pablo Lacoste (University of Talca, Chile) recollected that wine-growers were then proficient winemakers, brave soldiers, rough businessmen, and artists at the same time. On the basis of this historical background, proposed modern ventures touring across the Andes on the back of mules and horses resembling the former arrieros' mode of transportation.
A socio-psychological note highlighted the change of certain attitudes linked to gender. During the Roman era, as the allegory goes, wine and love did not flourish in solitude, but women could not drink wine. Such attitudes have changed today and women and men behave similarly regarding wine, a change that benefits both wine consumption and tourism, as emphasized by Marina Cavicchioli (Campinas Sate University, Brazil).
The seminar advanced both knowledge and positive attitudes regarding TWR. Under either public or private leadership, wine tourism has grown from local patrimony (historical assets linked to wine) to regional and national activities of wide appeal to adult people of both genders, and towards a protective attitude of wine culture. It is missing a more efficient use of open space and genuine involvement of local communities in the implementation of programs for sustainable wine tourism.
This Iberoamerican Seminar is becoming a regular opportunity for discussing wine and tourism, in a multi-disciplinary and international context. In addition, selected papers of the Seminar are published in Universum, a multidisciplinary journal produced at University of Talca. Seminar participants concluded that with more systematic TWR approaches this relationship will certainly move from a marriage of convenience to one of true love; a relationship fostered in the New World to be consumed mostly in the Old World.
Acknowledgement
Authors are extremely grateful to both Professor Arturo Vasquez, PanAm University, for his contribution to an early draft, and to Sharon Goulart, Head of Languages Department, Talca University, for her language advice.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Jorge Zamora
Jorge Zamora, Faculty of Management Studies, University of Talca, PO Box 721, Talca, Chile (E-mail: [email protected]).Pablo Lacoste
Pablo Lacoste, Institute of Humanites Juan Ignacio Molina, University of Talca (E-mail: [email protected])Notes
1. Part of ECOS-CONICYT Project #CO4 HO4.