Wine Tourism in Island Destinations: The Case of Crete

Nikolaos Trihas, Efthymia Sarantakou, Konstantinos Tsilimpokos

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Wine tourism is a type of special-interest tourism which has recorded a remarkable growth over the past few years, creating challenges and opportunities for wineries and wine regions to diversify and gain a competitive advantage. Many wine regions around the world – including several island destinations such as Tenerife, Sicily, Santorini, Corsica, Sardinia – have recognised the economic benefits of wine tourism, although much effort is needed to transform a wine region into a wine tourism destination. Within this framework, this paper aims to explore the level of wine tourism development in the Greek island of Crete. To achieve this objective, a survey was conducted in the wineries which participate in ‘Wines of Crete’, a network of 32 wineries operating in the island. Results indicate that most wineries in Crete have engaged in wine tourism, providing multiple experiences to their visitors, as their owners recognise significant benefits to their wineries and the island. However, they have not managed yet to exploit the full potential of wine tourism, proposing specific measures for its further development. Findings and discussions of this study are useful both to wine industry practitioners and to academic researchers interested in wine tourism.
Original languageEnglish
JournalInternational Journal of Islands Research
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • wineries
  • wine tourism
  • island destinations
  • tourism development
  • Crete

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