Abstract. The dynamics between urban and rural wine territories: a competitive advantage

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1 Abstract The dynamics between urban and rural wine territories: a competitive advantage The vine and the wine are factors that highlight and promote territories. In the rural territories that happens in an obvious way, considering the particular planning linked to its singularity. However, this is not enough to cope with the necessities and interests of contemporary forms of tourism. It does not offer tourists everything they are looking for. This fact demands the building of new alliances in the territories between the different agents related to its management and tourism in general. It also requires a dynamic interaction with the urban areas, as these areas allow another type of tourism which can complete the offer in rural areas. Reflection on the services offered by rural areas is necessary in order to maximise these interactions, with the goal of retaining the interest and attention of tourists, allowing them to stay in a wider regional area giving more benefits to everybody involved. My reflection today is based on the thesis that urban and rural territories should be linked to each other as this would result in a competitive advantage for both, and for wine regions in particular. In other words, the territory is the main opportunity for wine tourism. Place-based marketing, that gives importance to the region of origin, joining urban to rural areas, is one of the best strategies to make a difference in the field of wine tourism. The City of Porto as an urban wine territory in stone We are in this magnificent Palácio do Freixo in the banks of the Douro river. Porto is, in fact, the most appropriate place to reflect and discuss issues related to vine, wine and tourism. I will start precisely with this point: that Porto, as an urban territory, is a city of wine. It is not by chance that - from the 20th to the 27th of June - Porto will host the Congress of the International Organisation of Vine and Wine, the most important governmental organisation related to wine, and one of the themes of the congress will precisely be the Construction of the Cities of Wine, within the general theme The Construction of Wine A Conspiracy of Knowledge and Art. 1

2 Since ancient times, the wine regions around Porto, in particular the Vinhos Verdes and the Douro - where Port Wine is produced -, made this city its port for exporting wine. However, one could say it was quite recently - in the past two hundred years that wine producers came up the Douro river to its left bank. This happened after the Marquee of Pombal, who created the Companhia Geral de Agricultura das Vinhas do Alto Douro in which was the first governmental body to regulate the wine sector in Portugal and created the first demarcated wine region of the world -, forced Port wine to be exported worldwide having Porto as its commercial base. This was, of course, the result of the lobby of powerful citizens of Porto who were interested in the revenue coming from the production and selling of Port Wine. So, the taxes paid by wine had a great deal of responsibility in the investment on urban planning and development in Porto. Traces of that are pretty much everywhere. For example, the first wine stores were in the Arcos de Miragaia, on the banks of the Douro River, where the Companhia Geral de Agricultura das Vinhas do Alto Douro was located in the first place. Another example is the English Factory House that worked as a trading post for a company of foreign merchants. Some streets and important buildings in the city emerged as a result of the flourishing business of wine such as the Rua Nova dos Ingleses (literally meaning the New Street of the English), the Ribeira Square, the Almada street, the Central Hospital of Santo António and the majestic building of the Rector s House of the University of Porto. The Rector s House was built on the site of the old College of the Orphans. This was the place where the Classes of Navigation and Drawing took place and where The Royal Navy and Commerce Academy and The Polytechnic Academy developed their activities, always with the indispensable contribution of the Companhia Geral de Agricultura. 2

3 The City of Porto as an urban wine territory in character But wine did not only lefts its mark on stone. It also influenced the city s character. Multiple international contacts linked with wine were in the city, leaving a true fingerprint on our history. It is worth mentioning the citizen of Porto Afonso Martins Alho who, by appointment of its pairs and commanded by the King of Portugal, negotiated and celebrated, in London, in 1353, the first Portuguese-English commercial treaty. Since early times, many foreigners have settled in Porto to deal with issues related to wine. The English came mainly when they had to give Aquitaine over to France, in 1449, and were deprived of the wines from Bordeaux. Many other foreigners came and brought a more cosmopolitan atmosphere to the city. Today, we can still recognise families that have settled in Porto for one, two or three hundred years who proudly keep their family names and speak with our typical Porto accent. The van Zellers, the Symingtons, the Niepoorts, the Forresters, the Sandemans or the Crofts are only a few examples. Porto s character as a city and urban place must be understood considering these connections and influences which are typical of a port city, with a commercial soul, where wine takes a leading role. Porto City Council has always been a key institution around the economic activity generated by the wine sector. It was responsible for issuing authorisations and licensing wine related activities and it was also in charge of wine related tax payments. This explains why today the Municipal Archives are probably the most important source of information for all research related to the history of wine in our City. 3

4 Besides the Municipality, two other institutions are also worth mention: the Companhia Geral de Agricultura dos Vinhos do Alto Douro and the Misericórdia, institutions that were managed by the most important families in Porto. As such, all themes related to wine are of primary importance to Porto and, consequently, to the Municipality. The Great Wine Capitals: history, mission, projects It was in 1999 that Bordeaux challenged Porto Municipality to create an international association based on the wine culture that would gather cities having wine as its identity trace. Cities with international relevance, connected to wine regions and wanting to promote their wine tourism sector. So, on the 14 th of June, Porto, Bordeaux, Florence, Melbourne - Victoria, San Francisco Napa Valley and Santiago do Chile started this Great Wine Capitals Global Network s journey. Its mission is to be a co-operative platform that forges special relationships; undertakes exchanges; develops common projects that promote sustainable development and the competitiveness of its member wine regions and their products. It has the particular feature of joining all sorts of stakeholders, from public officials to business people, educators and wine industry representatives, building on the history, tradition and innovation of each wine region. For instance, Bordeaux is represented in the network by its Chamber of Commerce while Porto is represented by the City Council. There is no single way approach, each city can decide how it wishes to participate, and the more diversified the agents participating in the process, the more results the network has. It is, I think, in this multi actors approach that we find the success of the network and its projects. Comprising different actors from different sectors, it manages to address different needs of the wine sector. 4

5 The projects are developed in 4 committees or around 4 themes: Tourism, Education, Business and Communication. I would highlight 3 projects which I consider to be the most important in what concerns the promotion of wine tourism: The "Best Of Wine Tourism" contest is the main dialogue set between the network and the wine tourism providers. 9 cities in 9 countries evaluate contestants applying in different categories like architecture, parks and gardens; wine restaurants; innovation in tourism services; sustainable tourism, among others. All capitals together compare the proposals and define the best one in each category. The contest has been growing since its first year, in Contestants give their positive feedback saying that it made them organise themselves, rethink their business, benchmark with other countries. Finally, it provides them with a new brand of quality that adds value to their business. One can, for instance, see in the Port Wine Cellars on the banks of the Douro many signs with the brand Best of Wine Tourism, a fact which shows the economic and commercial value given to the project by the wine cellars themselves. The same happens in the Douro and in the Vinho Verde regions: after 8 editions of the contest, Porto has awarded 31 wine tourism providers in the North of Portugal, a quite significant number. The network has, more recently, since 2009, been working with universities through the Great Wine Capitals Student Grant. 4 students received in the past two years a grant of 5000 Euros each, to develop a research related to wine tourism or wine issues like climate change, financial sustainability and marketing. The success of the grant can be seen in the multiple invitations the grant winners have been receiving to participate in wine seminars and workshops. Porto is most proud to have one winner from the University of Minho who will present her study in this same congress. This definitely reveals one great result in the work of the network to support the study of wine issues in higher education institutions. 5

6 This year, the network is also addressing the wine tourism business as a whole by promoting an international survey on the advantages of adding wine tourism services to wine companies that would usually dedicate themselves exclusively to production. This study is lead by Mendoza- Argentina and we are expecting interesting results in March this year. The network will display those results internationally in order to add information to the debate around wine tourism based on specific data and answers collected in the field. These are only a few examples of how the network has been promoting its wine regions internationally, and what is best done in each region, whether it is in the business, or education or tourism sector. The Great Wine Capitals as an example of how the thesis works for territories Going back to the history of the network, I would stress how dynamic it has been. Some cities have given up the network - like Santiago in 2003 and Melbourne in 2006 while, fortunately, many others came on board like Cape Town (South Africa) in 2001, Bilbao Rioja (Spain) in 2002, Mendoza (Argentina) in 2005, Mainz Rheinhessen (Germany) in 2007 and more recently Christchurch South Island (from New Zealand) in In this short history, the number of new members has largely overcome the number of cities quitting the network. And requests for new members have been analysed carefully, as the network, according to its regulations, can only accept one city per country. So, the network sets as its highest principle to be representative of the wine world, both the New and Old. This explains the selective and careful approval of new members, as it aspires to be the leading organization of renowned wine regions with excellence in tourism, business services and education. This dynamic has proven the sustainability of the idea behind the network. It shows that many wine regions are awakening for a particular necessity: the establishment of new alliances in the territories, between the different agents 6

7 related to its management and to tourism in general; between rural and urban players, maximizing these interactions, with the goal of retaining the interest and attention of tourists, making them stay in a wider regional area, allowing more benefits for everybody involved more diversity. The network works based on the idea that wine can help qualify, plan and develop territories and regions; that cities of wine should be linked to the wine regions. It provides a platform that allows the different economic, social and cultural actors to interact with each other. That is one of the main virtues of this network, as it makes each city organise itself around the different projects, which imply involving different agents, generating the most important dialogue that leads to new ideas and new strategies for developing territories. It is not by chance that Porto City Council now gathers every year at the same table 11 institutions related to wine from the North of Portugal. We need their cooperation to implement projects that favour Porto and the surrounding regions in a win-win situation. We think tourists and tourism as a whole can only gain from this cooperation generated by the Great Wine Capitals, based on the territory. Tourists, who have been more and more attracted by wine, want quality. They want to know the landscapes, the soils, the techniques, the people and the stories behind the production of a certain wine. Wine tourism has to be an emotional experience, like the emotion of tasting a wine. They also want quality accommodation and to know the region were the wine is produced. Besides quality, They also demand diversity spas, adventure sports, heritage, gastronomy, coffees, shops, entertainment And it is in this particular aspect of diversity that one notices some limitations of typical wine producing regions. These are obviously rural by nature and they must preserve their identity as such. It is only by keeping their original rural nature that they can be attractive. And this explains the relevance of an 7

8 approach like the one made by Great Wine Capitals. It gathers cities with international recognition which are linked, by history or circumstance, with wine producing regions. They are connected and have grown together with this rural -urban proximity. Wine is their identity element and Porto and Bordeaux are those two examples which, in my opinion, best translate this idea of cities of wine. These cities have a metropolitan character, being true hubs in what concerns the wine regions were they are located. They are the administrative centre, the point of intersection of transports whether it is the airport, the railway lines or the roads. Furthermore, they have an urban and cosmopolitan life that cannot be found in rural areas. They are the entrance and the exit points for rural territories. Their proximity and easy communication offer tourists the possibility of going from rural to urban, depending on their interests and the diversity one is looking for. Wine marketing should promote the essence of a region captured in a bottle of wine. Place imagery in regional branding serves as an important source of differentiation and added value, so the more diversified the image the more tourists it can attract. That is why it seems to me absurd when I sometimes see some competition, and even antagonism, between the people in charge of tourism in these territories. On the contrary, they should work together, as the offer between rural and urban is complementary; it provides tourists with different experiences and sensations in the same location. Here, in the banks of the Douro river, there has been, throughout the centuries, a promising dialogue between rural and urban, mainly between the Douro Valley, were wine is produced, and Porto city, were wine is stored and traded. 8

9 The episode I mentioned about the Marquee of Pombal, when it was decided that the wine before being sold abroad should be stored in the city, also because of its climate conditions, has shaped the city s historical centre. So, Porto also owns to the history of wine its World Heritage site, classified by UNESCO in To complement this fact, in 2001, when Porto was European Capital of Culture, we received the most relevant news: that the Douro Valley - Douro Vinhateiro - had been classified as paisagem cultural evolutiva e viva living and evolving cultural landscape. This fact has crowned the embryonic connection between the city and the wine region. Some recent examples continue to mirror that proximity. Just to name a few, one of the most famous restaurants in the Douro called DOC has now a new restaurant in the city centre called DOP, showing how the region and the city represent a complement in the location of their business. Calém wines have created a partnership with the most traditional chocolate shop in Porto, Arcadia, and are now selling chocolate with Port wine flavour. Studies are being made in order to identify the marks of wine history in the city so we can identify a new urban route based on wine. I guess the number of signs is increasing and come as a confirmation that a new path for wine tourism should be the alliance of rural and the urban landscape in a continuum of territories. The opportunity lies itself in the philosophy of the Great Wine Capitals, of which the City of Porto is a proud member. Manuel de Novaes Cabral 9

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