Social Media, Wine Tourism and an Emerging Destination: A Case Study of Southern Sweden

Abstract

The tourism sector, including wine tourism, heavily depends on technological advancements for its operations, survival but also competitiveness. Wine producers and representatives of wine destinations use social media to provide target audiences with updated and relevant information about their products and activities. Previous research on the use of social media in wine tourism mainly focuses on established wine producers, well-known wine regions and wine tourism destinations in major wine-producing countries. Hence, there is lacunae regarding the use of social media in emerging wine tourism destinations. This chapter discusses the use of social media in the promotion of wine tourism in a new wine country. Southern Sweden, with its roughly 55 vineyards, is used as a case study. The chapter provides empirical findings about the social media use (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and websites) of the vineyards in southern Sweden. In 1999, Sweden officially entered the EU wine sector with a quota of 250,000 litres p.a. Since then, the Swedish wine sector has grown and commercialised. The findings indicate that vineyards in southern Sweden are in the start-up stage of their development with a profound interest in wine production and display a high competence from a technical standpoint; however, the vineyards’ lack of knowledge about marketing, promotion and social media appears to be a problem. Moreover, the alcohol-retail monopoly in Sweden does not permit cellar door sales, which reduces the vineyards’ motivation to use social media. The chapter concludes that it is still very important that the wine tourism sector in southern Sweden learn how to use social media to promote it as an emerging wine tourism destination.