Benchmarking wine tourism destinations – the case of Bulgaria

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is twofold – on the one hand, to introduce a framework for benchmarking of wine regions and on the other, to analyze the activities of wineries in Bulgaria with a clear focus on tourism.Design/methodology/approachThe research design includes secondary data and content analysis, which are complemented by a survey among wine cellar owners and managers in the country, including respondents from all five wine regions.FindingsThe paper has identified several problems that impede wine tourism development in Bulgaria, including: small number of wineries, small share of Protected Designation of Origin wines, ineffective business hours structure and small share of wineries offering additional services beyond tasting or cellar-door sales. On the other hand, wineries in Bulgaria conform to international trends in terms of providing accommodation, restaurant and SPA treatments. The survey revealed that tourism-hosting wineries consider wine tourism an important part of their activity but do not succeed in attracting a sufficient number of visitors, and the share of tourism-related revenues to their total incomes is small.Research limitations/implicationsThe survey included all the wineries in the country; in one of the regions (the Black Sea region), however, the response rate was very low, which means that while results and conclusions are representative for the country as a whole, they might not be applicable to this specific region.Originality/valueThe research results refer to an emerging wine destination, which has not been the object of a comprehensive study yet. In addition, the proposed update of an existing benchmarking model reflects recent changes and trends in the wine tourism industry.