Is there a scope for Organic wine tourism development? A focus on South African wine industry.

Abstract

Wine tourism has been earmarked as an important provider of revenue by the wine producing countries. Due to the high competition in the wine tourism market, many of these countries are trying to explore new ideas and attractions, one of them being organic wine tourism. The research explores the developments of such tourism in South Africa by measuring the Willingness to Pay (WTP) for organic wine as a part of further developing the organic wine production and implicitly the associated tourism market. The research showed that there is a willingness to pay a premium amount for organic wines based on a number of attributes. Attributes such as: Awards, Certification, Recommendations and Income have a positive impact on the WTP, while previous perceptions of organic wines have a lowering effect. More research needs to be undertaken to identify whether the WTP is indeed transformed into actual demand.