Wine Tourism Destinations Across the Life-Cycle: A Comparison of Northern Greece, Peloponnese and Crete

Abstract

Since Macionis’ (Proceedings of tourism down under II: Towards a more sustainable tourism, University of Otago, pp. 264–286, 1996) pioneer work, several authors have sought to connect and interpret both entrepreneurial and regional development aspects of wine tourism by employing the theoretical concept of “Tourism Destination Life-Cycle”. Despite the significant work already carried out over the past two decades (Deery, Mahony, & Moors in Tourism Planning & Development, 9(3), 291–307, 2012; Dodd & Beverland in Tourism Recreation Research, 26(2), 77–80 2001; Skinner in Wine tourism around the world: Development, management and markets, pp. 283–296, 2000; Tomljenovid & Getz in Tourism Review International, 13(1), 31–49, 2009), empirical evidence remains sparse and derives exclusively from studies conducted in New World countries. Therefore, Getz and Brown (International Journal of Wine Marketing, 18(2), 78–97, 2006) stress that long-term sustainability strategies should consider the different patterns of wine tourism across regions and implement benchmarking systems. In a recent review, Thach (Strategic Winery Tourism and Management: Building Competitive Winery Tourism and Winery Management Strategy, Apple Academic Press (Division of CRC Press with Taylor & Francis): Florida, USA , pp. 115–124, 2016) outlines “Risks of saturation and increasing competition” along with “More sophisticated wine tourism measurements” among the most emerging areas in wine tourism research. Given the aforementioned context, the current chapter applies Tourism Destination Life-Cycle Theory, aiming to explore the development of wine tourism in Greece. In particular, the objective of this study is twofold: a. to present a critical overview of Greece’s wine tourism evolution, current state and future prospects; and b. to provide a cross-regional comparison of three selected wine tourism destinations—namely, Northern Greece, Peloponnese and Crete—on the basis of spatial; Life-Cycle stage; and network development characteristics. In doing so, research employs a mixed-method design, combining literature review; document analysis and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders and national experts of wine tourism.