Build sustainable stakeholders’ interactions around wine & food heritage: the Douro Wine tourism case

Abstract

Wine tourism represents a complex ecosystem, covering various fields of research, stakeholder interests, Wine & Food landscapes, territorial & cultural strategies and business perspectives. The Douro territory (North of Portugal) was the first wine region in the world to be demarcated and regulated (1756) and more recently, in 2001, due to its strong cultural identity, the Alto Douro Vinhateiro was classified by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. This work, which is based on a diverse documental analysis, literature review and field work, aims to suggest a new enotourism “Stakeholder Analysis” model, reinforcing Wine & Food heritage perspective inside the tourism experience. Another objective of our study is to encourage responsible behaviour among all stakeholders to guarantee a balanced approach between business competitiveness, cultural authenticity, site-conservation, landscape promotion and sustainable development. To assure a sustainable Wine Tourism sector, all Douro stakeholders must balance their own business goals and agendas with the territory development vision, wine & food heritage and adopt cooperation strategies in their businesses and territory.