Event Management in Wine Tourism

Event management in Wine Tourism

Oriol Miralbell [email protected]

January, 25, 2009

Contents

• Wine tourism and cultural tourism.

• The case study of Catalonia

• Dynamics in the Wine Regions

• The cultural tourism event

• Designing and managing wine tourism events

• Conclusions and recommendations

Wine tourism as a complementary offer in cultural tourism

• The leading position of Spain and of Catalonia as tourism destinations is an asset to use in developing wine tourism

• Looking to elaborate differentiation strategies using a complementary offer to the main attractions based on the use of cultural heritage and traditions in tourism.

• In the last decades, cultural tourism events are among the preferred elements to be integrated with strength in tourism offer in Catalonia.

Research done in 2007 by Francesc González and Oriol Miralbell – UOC

Tourism in Catalonia. Some figures

International Tourists to Catalonia and Spain in 2007

Catalonia¹ Spain²

Country # (thousands) Rank # (thousands) Rank

France 4.275 1 9.319 3

Germany 1.443 4 10.046 2

Belgium and

Netherlands 1.455 3 4.127 4

Switzerland 350 8 1.388 8

Italy 1.304 5 3.634 5

UK 2.161 2 16.271 1

Scandinavia 585 7 3.450 6

Russia 255 9 445 9

US and Japan 706 6 1.490 7

Souce: ¹ - Turisme de Catalunya i Institut d'Estadística de Catalunya, a partir de les dades de Frontur de l'IET. ² - Frontur de l'IET

Tourism in Catalonia. Some figures: cultural offer

Cultural tourism leads in tourist’s evaluation

Wine tourism has an opportunity inside cultural tourism

Perception of Catalonia as destination

Beautiful, Cultural and Sunny


• Wine tourism cannot be seen as a mere activity in the wineries or in the wine cellars. There exist specific assets that have to be integrated.

• These assets need to make from the experience in the wine regions a complete experience of senses.

• These assets are:• Natural heritage – nature and landscape• Cultural heritage – architecture, monuments and traditions• Communications and proximity to strategic areas• Lifestyle, society and habits• Crafts, artisans and artists• Leisure, active tourism and ecotourism


• Wine tourism needs dynamics that can cohesion the spread cellars to make visible the uniqueness of the wine region and build an identity as a tourist destination.

• These dynamics have in the organization of events a trait of union

Catalonia. Tourist regions

The events as a phenomenon of tourism and leisure

A recognized definition of events:

“a transient and one-time or infrequently occurring event outside the normal program or

activities of the sponsoring or organizational body and, for the guest, an opportunity for a leisure, social or cultural experience outside

the normal range of choices or beyond everyday experience” (Getz, 1994)

Two approaches to think when designing events

• Events combine two approaches:

o Socializing approach (oriented towards the local community)

o Festival approach (oriented towards the visitors and marketing)

• Each dimension affords different arguments that foster the creation of events:

o Socializing approach

o Festival approach

Strategic re-positioning of destinationsbased on the exhibition of heritage and traditions

Dissolution of the shift between exclusive culture and popular culture for consumption

Festivals and heritage used as social identity vs. globalization

Reduced organizacional costs (grant, support of voluntaries, temporary...)

Appropriate for present consumption dynamics (short breaks)

Lessons to learn and opportunities of present distribution of events

Geographical distribution of events (González, 2006):

• Fast grow• Presence on the hole territory• Concentrated in tourist areas and in

Barcelona• Demand from urban areas and proximity

(Catalonia as a functional area for leisure)• Remarkable position of popular culture

as a theme (with differences depending on urban or rural area)

• Seasonal distribution during the year• Important role of local government in

promotion• Low use of ITC in distribution and

marketing

Distribution of events after municipality, 2005

Source: González, 2006

Profiles of events

Topic of events• Main topics: Festivals,

traditional and popular events, and musical events

• High diversification :

– Diversification strategies of destinations (creation of additional supply and new products for active demand)

– Old tradition in celebrating festivals and especial recover after the 1980s

Main topic event’s distribution, 2007

100,00Total

4,02Sport events

12,75Gastronomy

7,04Specialized exhibitions

11,74Market or artisans fair

21,14Popular festival

13,08Entertainment

5,36Theater festival

24,83Concert or music festival

%

Source: González, 2006

Time distribution 2) Seasonality) There's a trend to organize events according to the

patterns of frequency of visitors.

Time scale & dimension

2) Duration and dimension (# visitors)

Small events with short duration, taking place every year since the 1980-1990s tending to augment in the last years.

76,4Continuous organization (every year)

28,1Editions starting after 1997

67,1Duration < 2 days

13,6Dimension (> 50.000 visitors)

%Indicator

Managing trends 3) Management

* Low budgets (42% <15.000€)

* Expenses most for functioning rather than promotion and HR

* Low professional profile of management structure, strong amateur profile and low capacity to generate benefits (> 50% do not have benefits or have very little)

* Main goals are socializing (66%) rather than touristic (34%)

* Lack of coordination and networking. Trends: act independently and isolated competing directly with other events.

Publicity & selling 4) Marketing

* Low use of distribution channels

* More extended use of promotional channels

* Low use of the traditional means of tourism in both cases

Use of promotion channels, 2007

100,00100,00100,00100,00100,00100,00100,00100,00% total

75,2984,4195,444,1861,6017,8714,0720,53% no

24,7115,594,5695,8238,4082,1385,9379,47% yes

Promotion events

Specialized exhibitions

Cell phone

Internet (web)

Specialized journals

Daily Newspapers

RadioTV

Font. Elaboració pròpia

Distribution channels of events, 2007

100,00100,00100,00% Total

3,043,043,04% free

93,5442,9763,12% no

3,4253,9933,84% yes

Travel Agents (packages)

Booking systemsOfficial distributors

(Servicaixa…)

R o I (?) 5) Economical impact (qualitative results based on

perceptions of interviewed)

* Seems evident the beneficial effect (68% of events have a great impact on hospitality and 78% on restaurants)

* Direct link between the capacity to generate economic impact and getting profit, and the presence of tourism

* The events with a structured and professional management and a solid promotion and professional organization attract more tourists and generate a greater local impact.

Organization

6) Agents

* Strong dependence on local governments’ involvement to maintain and organize the events (82% become grants and financial support from local government)

* Patronage is rare (11%), private financial support is more frequent (55%)Formes de finançament dels esdeveniments, 2007

100,00Total100,00Total

1,90No answer0,00No answer

42,59No88,59No

55,51Yes11,41Yes

(%) Private support (%) Patronage

Font: Elaboració pròpia

3 Models of events

• The resulting matrix shows 3 factors that may correspond to 3 models of event:

o 1) Socializing and with local participation

o 2) Touristic and professional

o 3) Discontinuous professional

14,21018,49223,319% explained variance

1,2791,6642,099Proper value

0.4770,481Obtaining economical profit

-0,465Budget > 50.000€

-0,736Continuous / discontinuous event

0,737Belonging to a network or circuit

0,811Presence of more than 20% of tourists

0,676Presence of foreign tourist

0,617Participation of local citizens

0,649Planned meetings

0,787Participation or involvement of local government

Factor #3Factor #2Factor #1Associations

Opportunities

• The study confirms the idea that the events are excellent resources to design strategies for local development with tourism business

• It also shows that there exit (socializing) models that hardly may be assumed by tourism without a suffering a negative impact

• The most important factors to generate local development with tourism business are those related to attractiveness or market proximity and regional concentration

• Local government’s involvement is key to reach positive social impacts at a local scale.

ConclusionsRecommendations for Wine Tourism Events:

– Events show great capacity to become attraction focus for visitors and to generate social and economic local impacts

– Though many events should not be target to tourism consume, and those which can be addressed to tourists should have a professional management team.

– Because of the probable increase of events in the future we suggest the criteria to act properly:


– Select event models that allow a correct repositioning supply strategy and attract visitors

– Minimize the negative effects before launching a tourism event strategy like: concentrated, small and fragmented supply, lack of cooperation and association of stakeholders, excessive role of local administration, different goals and interests between promoters, etc.

– Change structural weaknesses like: excessive concentration of demand, low percentage of tourists, seasonality, lack of professional management skills, lack of economical sustainability, insufficient creativity skills, and serial repetition of existing events.


– Involve local agents, tourism and wine industry to make the social and economical integration a warranty for sustainability and to create internal networks of knowledge and innovation

– Work in coordinated groups with other wine regions to share costs, gain economy of scales in promotion and in building a network of organizers of wine tourisem events.

– Be creative in integrating other expressions than gastronomy and music think on art exhibitions, theater and film festivals, etc. where wine and vineyards are the key subject.

Thank youGràcies

Oriol Miralbell [email protected]

Event Management in Wine Tourism

Business

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