Overview

As suggested in the introductory chapter and in the various chapters and case studies throughout this book, wine tourism is a developing field of interest to a number of industry stakeholders, communities and regions. However, the range of economic, social and environmental impacts associated with wine tourism and the broad scope of issues associated with its development also suggest that the analyses undertaken in this book raise almost as many questions as they answer. The purpose of this final chapter is to highlight some of the key issues that need to be addressed when examining the potential future of wine tourism around the world, including the research needs of the organizations involved in wine tourism at both a business and a regional level.

Utilizing the material presented in this book and supplementary opinions and insights of a number of the contributors, this chapter discusses the future of wine tourism. Keeping within the structure of the book it examines the future of wine tourism around the world in terms of both products (supply) and markets (demand) and the inter-relationships between wine, tourism and regional development, including a separate exhibit by Stephen Page, which discusses wine tourism and rural development in the new millennium. As we have seen throughout the preceding chapters, exhibits and case studies, tourism and the wine industry are inexorably linked. Indeed, both wine and tourism are identified more by location than anything else (Dickenson and Salt...