Issues and Opportunities of Niche Tourism Markets- Understanding South India Wine Tourism

Abstract

Wine tourism is one of the best ways to take the tourist for an offbeat experience and it also helps in understanding the local culture and cuisine. Wine tourism is now recognized as an important aspect of destination promotion all across the globe. It is a niche type of tourism, whose principal feature is given by the wine and the wine-production places and wine consumers. Wine tourism can be defined as "visitation to vineyards, wineries, wine festivals and wine shows for which grape wine tasting and/or experiencing the attributes of a grape wine region are the prime motivating factors for visitors (Hall and Macionis)". This definition is apt because it encompasses the various destinations most frequently sought by wine tourists and reinforces the fact that there are different reasons tourists go to a particular destination. Today, wine tourism is acknowledged as a growing area of special-interest tourism throughout the world and it is an increasingly important tourism component of for many wine producing states. With its wide range of advantages, including foreign-exchange earnings, the creation of both full- and part-time jobs, and the generation of secondary economic activity, wine tourism is emerging as a lucrative industry sector.The ability to generate substantial long-term wealth and sustain steady tourism growth for these regions also helps in understanding the changing consumer dynamics. In the last 10 years the growth of wine Industry, particularly in India has led to a spurt in wineries and improved extended tourist stay and spending power. In the last five years wine tourism has become a key market driver for South Indian cities like Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad resulting in mushrooming new wine industries, wine festivals, wine lounges and other wine related activities. With Government aim at increasing grape cultivation, and encouraging more wineries, and wine-production units declared as food processing industry one can expect concessions to boost the sector. Furthermore relaxing the license-issuing procedure, there has been a substantial increase in winery owners in these cities.This sudden gain of optimism among the industry, government and consumers in these cities has resulted in critical developmental issues of sustainability and long term profitability.The study undertakes a review of existing activities, deals with issues related to wine tourism. The aim is to analyze whether government promoted wine festivals have had an impact on the tourism sector.  In addition the research will also detail if wine dinners and wine activations carried by the companies have resulted in heightened tourist inflow and improved destination awareness. The study identifies challenges and makes prospective suggestions with respect to an action plan that will develop urban wine tourism in metro cities of south India.

Keywords: Urban Wine tourism, South India, metro cities, challenges, prospects