Increase Wine Tourism in Spain from Chinese Tourists

Abstract

In recent years and especially after the world pandemic COVID-19, the tourism sector is undergoing great changes as a result of travelers looking for unique and outdoor products to enjoy different experiences, involving new trends in tourism, especially in non-traditional destinations, and changing the needs and attitudes of tourists. In this sense, the tourist is currently more and more motivated by sensations in the search for new experiences. In this context, in which the experience is a fundamental objective, some tourist modalities such as wine tourism, already emerge as practices aimed at satisfying the new demand after the 1990s world widely. Nevertheless, this paper is present the current Chinese tourist flows after the pandemic and their relevant motivations in the growing demand for slow tourism, breaking the traditional stereotype of what we think are their demands, and presenting the possibility of wine tourism in small and middle-scale places like Priorat of Catalunya and Ribeira Sacra of Galicia, both situated in Spain. The main objective of this study is to research the development of a friendly campestre and natural wine and food local supplies, their interesting up-downs historic paths, their impressive "heroic" geographic sceneries such as the big contrast of mountains against rivers in these two still developing their international names wine regions of Spain: Priorat and Ribeira Sacra, also analyzing the high acquisitive power and potential demands of wine tourism for Chinese outbound tourists for this two regions, to identify the adjustments that must be made in the plannings and applications in these two specific wine regions, and serving as examples for others still not well known international wine regions to be developed for Chinese tourists or even Asian tourists for Europe and the rest of the world.