Artículo #124
Challenges and opportunities: The wine tourism sector in Chile
Wine tourism has emerged as a strong and growing area of special interest tourism throughout the world, and is now an increasingly significant component of the regional and rural tourism product of most wine-producing countries. On the one hand, wine tourism can generate substantial benefits for all stakeholders involved: a) the vineyard, as a result of direct sales with higher margins, and brand promotion and loyalty; b) the tourist, by means of enriching experiences, and wine purchasing at lower prices; and c) the tourist destination, due to its contribution towards economic development and poverty reduction, the valorisation of natural attractions and heritage, and the promotion of sustainable local development. On the other hand, wine tourism can also lead to negative externalities, particularly for the communities involved, such as, sustainability issues, governance problems, and conflicts between stakeholders.
Texto destacado
Challenges and opportunities for the sustainable development
of the wine tourism sector in Chile.
Due to large existing differences in the ‘success’ rate of this industry between wine-producing countries or regions, a series of critical success factors (CSFs) has been suggested. These CSFs include factors such as quality (of wine, service, and experience), wine country appeal, winery appeal, developmental and marketing factors (Getz et al., 1999), a combination between quality wine and a set of natural landscape, culinary, educational, and cultural aspects (Williams, 2001), well-trained staff and dining events (Dodds, 1995), branding and image enhancement (Getz and Brown, 2006), investment in human resources and stakeholder involvement (Simpson and Bretherton, 2004), collaboration between wine and tourism industries, and between public and private organisations (Getz et al., 1999), and community involvement and support (Baker and Cameron, 2008). On the other hand, the existence of bottlenecks can impede the development of the wine tourism industry. Such barriers may include lack of infrastructure, regulatory restrictions, little government support, lack of appropriate staff training, lack of intersectoral linkages and coordination within the industry, unsustainable business practices, and strong focus of wine makers on wine production (Carlsen, 2004; Duarte et al., 2013).
ENOTOURISM IN CHILE
In Chile, enotourism has been identified as one of the sustainable tourism experiences where the country has a comparative advantage, together with other types of tourism, such as indigenous tourism, astronomical tourism, and adventure tourism (Infyde ID, 2015). The history of enotourism in Chile is linked to the creation of the first wine route, the Colchagua Wine Route, in 1996, followed by the subsequent development of several wine routes. In the last ten years, enotourism in the country has grown at approximately 21.3% a year. Historically, most tourists to the Chilean vineyards have been Brazilians (about 41% in 2015), followed by tourists from the United States (about 9%). Chilean tourists form about 20% of all tourists visiting the vineyards, making Chile the only wine-producing country that receives a much higher percentage of foreign visitors than domestic to its vineyards.
Nevertheless, despite being the eighth wine-producing country in the world in 2016 and the first among New World countries, Chile does not have a well-developed wine tourism sector. This can be evidenced by the small – but increasing – number of open vineyards, very little available information and research on this topic in the country, as well as by the relatively low number of tourists visiting vineyards. As a result, it can be argued that despite the clear advantage that Chile has with regards to the development of a successful wine tourism industry – existence of a cultural landscape of wine, diversity in potential terroirs and types of wine, reasonable air and ground transportation, and a generally well-organised tourism industry – the country has not taken full advantage of this potential so far (+M Consultores, 2014). Currently, enotourism in Chile encompasses about 5-6% of total tourism, bringing in much less income than other wine-producing countries: for 2015, it generated USD 24 million.
While it is important to bear in mind that Chile has relatively recently entered the wine tourism arena and therefore, it is difficult to compare it to other much more developed markets, especially to the Old World wine-producing countries, it is essential to address certain challenges that enotourism is facing and that are currently impeding the development of this very promising sector in Chile. These bottlenecks include the following:
• Tourist accessibility / infrastructure: various reports have underlined the existence of inadequate and low-quality services, inadequate signage, connectivity transport problems, insufficiency of tourist routes connected to tourist attractions, lack of maintenance of existing infrastructure, and low percentage of vineyards offering food services or accommodation (Infyde ID and Segittur, 2016; Rojas and Correa, 2015). Suggestions include addressing infrastructure gaps and public transport connectivity, investing in restaurant and accommodation services, and including wine routes into the wider region’s tourist product, by linking them to historical, cultural, and architectural sites in the area as well as to other types of special interest tourism.
• Domestic vs foreign tourists: only one in five wine tourists is Chilean, underlining a lack of advertising and promotion of wine routes to the average Chilean consumer, but mostly the high price of the average wine tour for local tourists, and the perception that wine tourism is for ‘rich people’ or is a ‘foreign tourist activity’. Prices of wine tours should be adjusted to local reality, special discounts should be made for Chilean tourists’ certain days and times per week, and more advertising of wine tourism destinations and Chilean wines in general should be made in various non-specialised media.
• Governance: the enotourism sector is characterised by low cooperation between leaders of industry, lack of coordination and organisation at a public and private level, limited programmes for supporting tourism-related businesses, and low associativity (+M Consultores, 2014; Rojas, 2016); these governance issues often lead to low quality of services, unsustainable practices, and informality. Cooperation and public-private partnerships need to be strengthened, together with the inclusion of more vineyards in wine routes, and the formation of a Wine Tourism Observatory, that would design and endorse policies aimed at promoting the sector, while at the same time collect statistical data on enotourism that could be used to improve existing practices and analyse strengths and weaknesses of the sector (Rojas and Correa, 2015).
• Sustainability: a decade of drought, together with the impact of climate change, urbanisation, and fire have put in jeopardy the future and sustainability of wine production and wine tourism. Sustainable practices have been implemented in the wine production processes, but to a limited extent in the wine tourism sector. In order to promote the sustainability of the wine tourism sector, it is necessary that businesses are offered tax benefits for hiring local personnel, and tax incentives for projects of corporate social responsibility (Rojas, 2016), and that vineyards adopt sustainability initiatives both involving the wine-producing process (such as, sustainable water usage and management, energy-efficient technologies, etc.), as well as wine tourism practices (for example, energy-saving facilities, purchase of local food and other products, recycling, etc.).
• Human capital: the wine tourism sector is characterised by an insufficient critical mass of collaborators and local partners for the entire value chain, a general lack of qualified and certified personnel with good knowledge of enology, foreign languages, and tourist culture, as well as a large gap between people’s training and employers’ actual needs (Infyde ID and Segittur, 2016). In order to attract more qualified personnel, it is necessary to increase existing salaries, and provide courses (included e-learning) on enology, customer services, and foreign languages. Language skills should initially include a good acquisition of English and Portuguese, and then – especially for larger vineyards – French and Chinese, due to the expected increase in tourists coming from France (on account of French people’s interest in wine) and China (taking into account the vast increase in the number of Chinese tourists worldwide).
• Commercialisation and promotion strategy: there is currently a large discrepancy between Chile’s potential as a wine tourism destination and the image that it has abroad, since the country is not considered an emblematic destination (Marinovic, 2016). There are also large differences in the usage of digital strategies between vineyards, and weak integration of regional and local actors in promotion activities. The image of Chile as a wine tourism destination needs to be strengthened through various wine festivals, tourism promotion agencies, and official digital marketing channels, while synergies with other tourism sectors (such as gastronomic industry, astronomical tourism, and adventure tourism) should be elaborated. The carmenere – Chile’s signature grape variety – should be strongly promoted, as this variety represents a differentiating element in the industry.
CONCLUSIONS
Chile is among the top wine producers in the world, with a clear advantage with regards to the development of a successful wine tourism industry: a variety of good-quality wines, unique geography, and good infrastructure. At a macro level, focusing on enotourism development offers a unique opportunity to reinvigorate the rather disappointing economic performance growth of less than 2% of the Chilean economy in the last years. As a subsector of the service sector of the economy, enotourism could also help to reorient the basis of an economy heavily dependent on extractive and environmentally-polluting industries towards a more sustainable type of development.
Despite its potential, wine tourism sector in Chile is still relatively underdeveloped. A series of challenges impede the successful development of this industry, resulting in an important loss of opportunities to generate wealth, as many local and foreign tourists are attracted to other destinations or other types of tourism with better place-marketing strategies and services. Recent efforts have led to an increase in professionalism of staff, improvement in infrastructure, greater competitiveness in services, and improvement in governance and marketing strategies. However, there is plenty of room for further improvements and competitive advantages that have not been yet fully exploited. Addressing the barriers to its sustainable development, Chile could become a renowned world-class enotourism destination.
This article was original published in Journal of Wine Research.
Eugenio Figueroa B. & Elena S. Rotarou (2018). Challenges and opportunities for the sustainable development of the wine tourism sector in Chile. Journal of Wine Research, 29:4, 243-264, https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/R6qWFmKsm2V5Wk3i8bkn/full
(*) Elena S. Rotarou is an experienced researcher with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry. Skilled in research, data analysis, teaching, and project management. Assistant Professor at Universidad San Sebastián and strong research professional with a PhD focused on development economics from Kyoto University, Japan, Msc in Urban and Regional Studies of Birmingham University, United Kingdom.