Integrated rural wine tourism: a case study approach

ABSTRACT

Using the Niagara Peninsula Appellation as the case study, qualitative research was employed through the use of interviews conducted with wineries and industry associations, in an attempt to answer two specific questions: (1) how does the wine industry and wine tourism aid in the development of Niagara’s rural area using the integrated rural tourism (IRT) concept, and (2) how can IRT aid in rural development through direct, experiential, conservation, development, and synergistic benefits. It is apparent that the seven components of IRT provide a reasonable framework to analyse the ability of IRT to realize benefits, although that the addition of marketing and future needs/desires as components improve its explanatory power. Using the modified IRT framework, this research found that wine tourism has derived direct, experiential, conservation, and synergistic benefits, with work still to be undertaken in order to improve upon tourism’s positive impacts in Niagara and peripherally rural areas more generally in the areas of community engagement and improved industry synergy.

KEYWORDS:

• Wine
• tourism
• rural
• integrated rural tourism

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Dr. P. F. Wilkinson, Dr. H. Jacobs, Dr. R. MacRae, Dr. R. Dodds and L. Hart for their invaluable input and guidance during the process of conducting this research. This paper also draws on research conducted as part of the dissertation written by Holmes (2014).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Mark Robert Holmes http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9587-367X

Notes

1 There appears to be disagreement amongst the industry and government on whether or not tourism is an industry or an economic sector. Within this research, the term tourism industry is used.

2 ‘VQA,’ must contain 100% locally grown grapes which, in Ontario, must come from one of Ontario's three viticultural appellations: Niagara Peninsula, Lake Erie North Shore, or Prince Edward County (GGO, 2005; VQA, 2013).

3 ‘Cellared in Canada,’ (CIC) sometimes referred to as ‘Cellared by ABC Winery,’ contains at least 30% of Ontario grapes (GGO, 2005).

4 ‘International Canadian Blend,’ typically referred to as ICB, must contain at least 25% Ontario Grapes (GGO, 2005)

5 ‘Product of Canada,’ must contain at least 75% Canadian grapes (GGO, 2005).

6 The composition of such a programme is beyond the scope of this research.