W.I.N.E. Project winemakers meeting.
Warsaw, September 2013
By Aleksander Sucharda

1. What Poland can offer to wine tourists?
2. Wine tourism development tools.
3. A short SWOT analisys.
4. Development chance…

Wine tourism has been defined as “visitation to vineyards, wineries, wine events and shows for which grape wine tasting and/or experiencing attributes of a grape wine region are prime motivating factors for visitors”. (Hall, et al.,
2000)

In Poland there are 6 wine regions with ca. 500 vineyards. Mostly small, family farms up to 1 ha of acreage. There are few larger enterprises like
“Jaworek” Vineyards , “Adoria” Vineyard (Lower
Silesia), “Stara Winna Góra” Vineyard,
“Dębogóra” (Zielona Góra), “Nad Dworskim
Potokiem” (Małopolska) from 6-7 ha up to 20 ha.

During the season a plenty of wine events are set in all regions. On a national and regional level: Convention of Polish Winemakers, events in Zielona Góra, Jasło (Podkarpacie), Janowiec
(Małopolski Przełom Wisły), Sandomierz, and many small events organized in cooperation with local business.

Poland is a great eco-tourism destination. Good preserved natural areas, national parks in mountain and lake areas or at the seaside. Many historical cities near to wine regions (Wrocław,
Kraków, Kazimierz Dolny, Sandomierz, Zielona
Góra).
This factors are giving good ground to create a various wine-tourism products.

The only disadvantage is disturbed wine tradition. Poland can’t offer a typical winelandscape. Small vineyards acreage or lack of consistent architecture cause hard to impress
Poland as a wine-country.
This is changing, but needs time or even generations for wine to come back into polish landscape.

After UEFA Euro 2012 Poland got a very good feedback.
Hosting Europe’s top national teams and press from all over the globe we’ve improved our touristic skills. We’ve also showed the new communication and tourism infrastructure. The number of foreign tourists grows and there is higher income from them each year.
This is a great moment for creating an innovative tourism product, which will combine natural resources and cultural heritage with sustainability and new trends in world tourism industry, such as food and wine travel.

These all factors are creating good environment for wine tourism development. But there is still number of things to do!
Here are few tools, which we recommend to introduce into the polish wine regions.

• Separation the region (geographical and historical boarders, landmarks, main attractions in region).
• Vineyards Signage.
• Wine routes with signs, maps and brochures
(local for bikes and walking, regional for bikes, cars or horsemanship).
• „Wine Passports” loyalty programs which will help the tourists visit more places on routes.
• Specialized market actors.

• Website (region and wineries).
• Cooperation with local tourism business
(hotels and other accommodation places, main attractions, restaurants).
• Cooperation with local tourism boards and
Tourist Information Points.
• Continuous information to media (about wine, events, seasonal works and tourism attractions).

STRENGHTS

Reborn of wine tradition.

Local organizations of winemakers.

Wine regions (as a first step to appelation).

Vineyards in beautiful areas with a well preserved natural state.
 Good cuisine and regional products.
 Historical and cultural heritage of regions.

Well organized eco- and agro-tourism market.
WEAKNESSES

Quality of wine.

Lack of well organized tourism infrastructure in wineries.

Lack of specialized workforce, experience and knowledge in wine tourism.
 No interest to the issue of national tourist board and regional organizations.
OPPORTUNIETIES

Reborn of regional traditions. An increasing trend in society of regional products popularity.

Increasing wine consuption.

New, high quality accommodation facilities prepared for meeting the needs of winetourists.
 Development of wine-tourism infrastructure
(regional wine associations , routes, maps, events and wineries with place to sit and eat, few with BB).
 Global disturbance in popular tourism destinations, which keeps people in “safe areas” in Europe.

Euro 2012 organisation success, good press and promotion.
THREATS

Competition of better developed and prepared wine countries.

Bureaucratic barriers (polish winers have to answer to tens of visits from different gouverment offices and organisations).