PCT launches the Wine Tourism Competitiveness Reinforcement Plan

Work has begun at the Science and Technology Park for Tourism and Leisure on the execution of the Plan for the Reinforcement of the Competitiveness of Wine-tourism in the counties of Tarragona, CENOTUR. The plan will be administered by the Consortium for Improving Competitiveness in Tourism and Leisure in the Province of Tarragona, and co-financed by the second ERDF Objective 1.

These are applied in the fields of market intelligence, information systems and the development of technologies.

The plan is structured in two programmes, and underscores the importance of the wine tourism sector in promoting social and economic progress in Tarragona’s interior and rural counties and the need to improve their competitiveness through the application of knowledge and technological innovation.

The first programme is based on destination management systems and the second on product management systems. Starting this year until early 2012, work will be done to improve information, knowledge and management in this sector, which has such a great deal of potential in Tarragona. For example, a newsletter will be published regularly that will capture trends in wine tourism and provide insight into the characteristics of this segment in the Costa Daurada and Terres de l’Ebre areas. A system of wine tourism indicators will also be created to allow comparisons to be drawn with competitors.

Furthermore, a database will be created and regularly updated with complete and useful information for operators and agents in the sector as well as an activity recommendation service for wine and tourism in the counties of Tarragona which will be accessible by mobile phone.

Wine tourism is a sector that is currently enjoying a clear growth period, and one that is being structured and developed in the counties of Terra Alta, Ribera d’Ebre, Terres de l’Ebre, the Priorat, Tarragonès, Alt Camp, Baix Camp, Conca de Barberà, Baix Penedès, and the Costa Daurada In Tarragona alone there are five Designations of Origin (DO Conca de Barberà, DO Montsant, DO Tarragona, DO Terra Alta and DOC Priorat) and three that are shared with other regions (DO Penedès, DO Cava and DO Catalunya).

This makes Tarragona a tourist destination with an excellent potential for wine tourism, one with a richness of natural beauty that should be emphasised as one of the elements that characterise the area in wine tourism and in products directed at tourists in the area.
The project represents a step towards finding synergies, promoting cooperation between different stakeholders in the wine tourism sector in order to meet the competitiveness goals it has established.