Social Capital along Wine Trails: Spilling the Wine to Residents?

Shuangyu Xu,Erin Seekamp,Carla Barbieri

doi:10.3390/su12041592

Shuangyu Xu, Erin Seekamp + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su12041592

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Abstract

Social capital is a vital element of tourism development and sustainability, and has thus drawn significant attention during the past decade. Yet, this topic is still under-researched in the context of niche tourism, especially along linear tourism settings such as wine trails. As a major component of wine tourism, wine trails have been growing rapidly worldwide to further regional tourism development. To examine the level of social capital related with wine tourism, communities surrounding two wine trails in North Carolina (U.S.) were surveyed regarding the Trust, Information Sharing, Collective Action, Bonding and Bridging dimensions of social capital. Results indicated the Piedmont region has not yet fully developed the social capital associated with local wine trails, although residents perceived somewhat strong Collective Action derived from this growing tourism niche. Visitation frequency to wine trails was found to be significantly associated with all dimensions of wine tourism social capital. This study advances the wine tourism scholarship concerning social capital along wine trails (e.g., integrating main dimensions into one scale). It also sheds light on wine trail development and management, suggesting local wineries and wine trails invest greater effort in forging community bonds, especially among older residents, and bridging with local businesses.

Highlights

Wine trails have the capacity to attract visitors and boost local economy, and are increasingly being developed globally [1,2,3]
Given the potential capacity of wine trails to spread benefits within surrounding communities, the limited information related to the spatial dimension of social capital in linear tourism settings, and the need of such information for informing trail management, this study examines the level of social capital in communities along wine trails in the Piedmont region of North Carolina (NC)
The overall moderate level of social capital associated with the Piedmont wine trails and its non-significant association with spatial attributes is likely related to the inception stage of wine tourism in the region and the resulted limited residential interests in wine related activities

Summary

Introduction

Wine trails have the capacity to attract visitors and boost local economy, and are increasingly being developed globally [1,2,3]. Strong intra-network cooperation and interaction among actors (e.g., neighbors, citizens, government) brings economic, social and civic benefits for communities, including residents’ increased participation and commitment to a community [10], and is essential for trail success [8]. In this sense, social capital—the cornerstone of social relations, ties and networks and key to establishing intra-network cooperation [11]—becomes critical to the development of successful wine trails [12]

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