Wine tourism in Loire valley (France) : the rise of a new form of tourism
Résumé
As regards wine tourism, France is late compared with others like USA but this tourism is having a rise, in France and particularly in the Loire valley. This area is first known for its castles and most of tourists come in the Centre-Val de Loire (CVL) Region to visit these monuments and/or their gardens. In this contribution, we will focus on this area to question especially the way wine tourism fit into the tourist offer at the local scale. We selected two vineyards (Bourgueil and Cheverny) for a more in-depth study. We interviewed stakeholders of the wine tourism offer, that are tourist actors but also public authorities and wine growers. We also analyzed some official documents, brochures, websites and conducted in situ observations. For the public authorities and tourist actors, wine tourism is a good way to diversify the tourist offer in the Region. But, for wine growers, it is difficult to mark out in the tourist offer and take thus advantage. The implementation of wine tourism is current and needs time. The cooperation has especially to be improved again, between stakeholders, especially between tourist and wine actors. But the rise of this tourism is real and now quite visible on the territories. In the strict sense, what we observe is not yet wine tourism, because it remains isolated activities. But, in the Loire valley, with its castles, it is thus viewed, as an element among others of the tourist offer, especially by the public authorities and tourist actors. As for wine growers, they try to capture tourists visiting the Region to take advantage of tourism. Moreover, this new form of tourism marks territories, has economic fallouts and reinforce the local identity around vineyards.
Domaines
Géographie
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