Introduction: The evolution of wine tourism business management

Wine tourism is not a new phenomenon, but is growing in popularity as the various activities and experiences it entails are increasingly democratised to new markets, and as destinations seek to further exploit their wine industry resources and assets. Wine has enormous complementary potential with other destination products and experiences, such that wine/ries are increasingly a key component of the marketing mix and strategies of destinations. While there is an abundance of literature speaking to the motivations of wine tourists, and subsequent segmentation, far less of utility to wine tourism businesses and destinations is on offer. This includes firm level operational research and that related to destination strategy. Moreover, as more regions and wine tourism products and experiences come to market, the competition correspondingly intensifies. Opportunities are opening in a plethora of new markets: mass and niche. In this introduction to our book we set the tone for the chapters to follow by examining factors transforming both the wine tourist (e.g. their profile, behaviour and forces driving demand) and wine tourism businesses (critical success factors and emerging innovations). We conclude by summarising how these factors have influenced the composition and structure of this book.