Duarte Alonso and Martin A . O ' Neill Wine tourism in Spain : Th e case of three wine regions

By far the main focus of contemporary wine tourism research has been in 'New World' regions, while it appears to be under development in much of the 'Old World.' Th e present study adds to this underdeveloped body of research in that it addresses a range of wine tourism development issues, across three prominent 'Old World' wine regions: La Mancha, La Rioja and Penedès. A total of 94 wineries participated in the study. Respondents' answers and comments indicate that while many of the participating wineries are several generati-ons, or centuries, old, wine tourism appears to be in its 'tentative' stages, that is, only star-ting to gain momentum. One positive aspect is that most participants (68.1%) indicated that their wineries are open to the public mainly to generate interest for their wine brands among visitors, while 61.7% use the cellar door to educate customers, thus demonstrating wineries' longer-term strategy to 'convert' visitors to brand loyalty through wine tourism. Given the critical role tourism plays for Spain's economy, with over 50 million visitors per year, these fi ndings can have important implications for the long term sustainability of the wine industry in many of the nation's wine regions.