Perspectives of wine tourism development in Rostov region

Abstract

Wine tourism is an economically promising type of sustainable tourism for the region. Currently, the state has created favourable conditions for the wine-growing regions of the Russian Federation (one of them is the Rostov region) including financial support for the development of viticulture and winemaking. The article describes the forms of state support, explicates the status of the Rostov region among other wine territories since the latter, due to its natural and climatic features, has prospects for creating unique varieties of wine products with access to the level of world recognition. People’s awareness about wine tourism in the region and their intentions of future participation in visiting the Don vineyards and wineries was studied. Methods of content analysis, expert interviews with managers of wineries, and a mass survey of the population in this region, including more than 400 questionnaires were used in the study. The results show that there are three main factors for the successful development of wine tourism in the Rostov region: 1) a unique product of wine tourism in its taste; 2) the organization of wine production in the relationship between government and business, which opens up prospects for creating the necessary infrastructure for the development of enotourism; 3) potential wine tourists. Despite the low awareness of the surveyed residents of the region about the peculiarities of Don wines and wine tourism programs, 62% of respondents showed interest in participating in the tours. Some recommendations are given for organizing tourist routes that include an introduction to the cultural identity of the Don region in their program.