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

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

What Poland can offer to wine tourists? 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)

We’ve got Wineries! 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.

Wine Regions in Poland

We’ve got Wine Festivals! 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.

Pure nature and historical heritage. 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.

Disturbed Wine Tradition The only disadvantage is disturbed wine tradition. Poland can’t offer a typical wine- landscape. 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.

We’re good and You know that! 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.

What else we need? 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.

Infrastructure 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.

Promotion 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).

Short SWOT analisys. STRENGHTS WEAKNESSES  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.  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 THREATS  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 wine- tourists.  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.  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).

Thank You!