Developing the vine : commercialisation and commodification of the wine tourism product in the Stellenbosch Wine Region

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Wine tourism is emerging as an increasingly significant phenomenon in wine-producingregions throughout the world. The Stellenbosch Wine Region (SWR) is no exception and hasexperienced dramatic changes in the last decade. However, despite the documented industrydevelopment and rapid participant expansion, there has been insufficient systematic study ofthe extent, development, management and marketing of the wine tourism product providedby wine farms.This study investigates the SWR in terms of the commercial efforts, initiatives, services,facilities and the commodification of resources that occur on wine farms to form the winetourism product. The aim of the study is to establish the degree of commercialisation andcommodification in the SWR. This is achieved through realising three research objectives,namely�������������� compiling a thorough and complete list of manifestations and indicators that describecommercialisation and commodification in the wine tourism product on wine farms;�������������� establishing the degree of commercialisation and commodification at each individualwine farm in the research area; and�������������� portraying and analysing the spatial distribution of the degrees of commercialisationand commodification.A focus group of twelve individuals involved with wine tourism allocated relative importanceweightings for each of the 81 identified manifestations and indicators of commercialisationand commodification compiled in the questionnaire that was distributed to the wine farms inthe study area. The questionnaire required respondents to indicate the presence or absence ofthe listed manifestations or indicators on their respective farms. This data, used inconjunction with the importance weightings, facilitated the calculation of a valuerepresenting the degree of commercialisation and commodification for each farm, and so toofor the SWR.The study results confirmed the importance of commercialisation and commodification withevery wine farm having some form of these phenomena and the SWR having a 38 percentaverage degree of commercialisation and commodification. Of the five wine routes in theSWR, the Stellenbosch Hills route has the highest degree of commercialisation andcommodification with 42 percent.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University