Germany's Mosel Valley: Can Tourism Help Preserve Its Cultural Heritage?

Abstract

The Mosel Valley is Germany's fifth largest wine region. Its scenic winescape attracts thousands of visitors annually and the region is the most important tourist destination in the state of Rheinland-Pfalz. Focusing on the interdependent relationship between wine growing, wine tourism, and endogenous regional development, this article provides a comprehensive overview of problems facing the region in view of the ongoing decline in wine production. In particular, the steep-slope terraced vineyards that define this winescape are increasingly being abandoned, as they are difficult and costly to cultivate. Consequently, the primary pull factor for the tourism industry, the winescape, is endangered. In the past years a number of strategies seeking to revive wine production have been initiated at the grassroots level. In order to evaluate these measures and forecast future trends, qualitative interviews were conducted with key stakeholders from the wine and tourism industries. Measures aimed at improving tourism supply are of specific interest—although relatively underdeveloped, tourism already contributes significantly to growers' income. By further exploiting the benefits, planers hope that wine tourism will play a greater role in the protection of its own product base. Based on an in-depth assessment, the authors conclude that while tourism cannot single-handedly sustain the wine-growing tradition, it is an integral and indispensable component of any future cultural heritage conservation strategies.