REQUENA-UTIEL WINE TOURISM PRODUCT CONCEPTUALIZATION
Página2 CONTENTS Page 1. Precedents and methodology... 3 2. Requena-Utiel area... 4 3. The wine tourism territory... 4 4. The wine tourism product.........5 5. Issue markets and target customers...7 6. Establishment card annexed.......8
Página3 1. Precedents and methodology Considering an analysis process of supply and wine-related resources, some conceptualization strategies are proposed, in order to strengthen individual offers and tourist packages. This product conceptualization also offers all the basic information to work on product communication. Methodology: Interviews to 25 stakeholders of the wine tourism area (wine cellar owners, accommodation establishments and restaurants, adventure tourism companies, museums, etc.), making possible: - Verification of the current situation of wine tourism in the territory, with the main problems, positive aspects to operate, preferential markets... - Identification and evaluation of the main tourist resources in relation with wine tourism to enhance and market them. - Development of more than 30 Mystery Shopping analyses for tourism establishments, in order to evaluate infrastructures and quality of service.
Página4 2. Requena-Utiel area Requena-Utiel area is located in the northwest of the province of Valencia. It is bounded by Castilla-La Mancha autonomous community to the north and west, by Los Serranos area to the northeast, by Hoya de Buñol area to the east and by Valle de Cofrentes area to the south. Requena-Utiel area is a 1.725,90 km² plateau with an altitude of 750 metres above sea level, with a continental climate. At a tourist level, the geographical location makes easy wine tourism development, specially thanks to the closeness to the city of Valencia (50 minutes by car) and other coastal tourist destinations. 3. The wine tourism territory 3.1. Resources, attractives and other elements in the territory - Historical Heritage in La Villa of Requena - Wine and archaeology ( Las Pilillas site) - Cultural Scenery of Wine and Wineyards proposal for UNESCO declaration - Variety of wine cellars - Utiel Requena Regulatory Council - Oenology and Vine-growing Technological Institute Instituto Tecnológico de Viticultura y Enología - Important gastronomical variety - Accommodation - Adventure tourism - Complementary resources and museums - Events and Fiestas
Página5 3.2. Importance analysis An importance matrix has been developed from the results of the interviews during the fieldwork, the expert knowledge of the work team and the static information evaluation with these results: -Visitable wine cellars are the most outstanding tourist resources, followed by vineyard landscapes and wine culture in the area. -Gastronomical attractive and local restaurants are the most popular resources (over wine cellars), because of the strong communication strategies about local cold meat and sausages, despite the fact that it has a limited relevance as a tourist resource. -Heritage resources of the area have only one point of reference: Requena old town, a complementary resource. -The adventure tourism supply is the less important in the destination, but it could be important as a complement to the tourist territory. 4. The wine tourism product 4.1. Conceptualization An organized commercial tourist product integrating the majority of villages of Requena-Utiel area, placing in the market its wine-related tourist attractives, its vineyard landscapes and its wine-related millennial culture; in combination with its gastronomical richness, its cultural heritage and the complementary adventure tourism activities.
Página6 4.2. Product qualities Considering tourist resources of the area, these are the main desirable features for the product to achieve the success in the tourist market: -Authenticity: feeling an attractive immersion in the wine and wineyard land. -Consumable: the wine cellars must be open and with a well designed tourist experience. -Comfort: making easy the tourist experience during the stay (timetables and signposting) -Soundness: offering complete and truthful information about wines production, specially for professional customers. -Variety: offering different experiences related to wines. -Sustainability: concerning preservation of nature, culture and history values, without affecting economic development in a negative way. -Fun: offering enjoyable experiences around wine tourism product. 4.3. Product components Main complements: - Wine cellars selection (deben brindar la posibilidad de entrar en contacto con el viñedo, entender cómo se cultiva, conocer las cepas autóctonas, disfrutar de vistas panorámicas y pasearse entre viñedos). - Cultural Scenery of Wine and Wineyards (taking advantage of it, even it UNESCO don t declare it). - Education courses, workshops and wine tastes.
Página7 Satellite complements: - Gastronomy - Heritage - Events and Fiestas - Adventure tourism 5. Issue markets and target customers 5.1. Preferential issue markets - Nearby residents: it is the main market of this wine tourism product, and it can create a continuous demand across time. There are 2,5 millions of people 1 5 hours away from the area, because of the nearby location of Valencia city. This is an interesting market for weekends (individual visitors) and during the week (business groups, companies, senior...)deberán buscarse: - Nearby destinations tourists: the 2,9 million national and foreign visitors received by the Valencia Community involve an important potential market. The main moments are summer, Holy Week, long weekends and weekends from February to October. - Mid-range tourists: includes the city of Madrid, with its 6 million people metropolitan area, specially due to the good road and high speed train communications.
Página8 5.2. Target customers - Couples and small groups / recreation - Big leisure groups / recreation - Couples and small amateur groups - Companies and institutions in the area - Gastronomy and oenology professionals - Wine routes and gastronomy tours for groups. - Travel agencies - Empresas organizadoras de eventos - Restaurants, wine bars, hotels. - Websites such as Atrápalo, Smart Box, etc. 6. Establishment card annexed 97 resources have been considered as interesting components for Requena- Utiel wine tourism product launch, specially concerning joint work with tour operators: - 21 wine cellars - 25 hotels and country houses - 13 restaurants - 8 museums - 2 wine bars - 17 inbound operators - 5 adventure tourism companies - 7 Fairs and fiestas