The Spanish Association of Wine Cities (ACEVIN) has completed the projects developed over the last two years within the framework of the “Spain Tourism Experiences” Program, an initiative of the Ministry of Industry and Tourism financed with Next Generation EU funds. The program aims to increase and improve the experiences that make up Spain’s tourism offering. The program is part of the Spanish Government’s Recovery, Transition, and Resilience Plan and integrated into the Tourism Sector Modernization and Competitiveness Plan of the State Secretariat for Tourism.
Under the name ‘Wine Tourism Experiences in Spain: Observatory, Innovative Experiences, Circular Economy and Omnichannel Sales of Unique Experiences’, ACEVIN has coordinated the implementation of an ambitious project that, including different actions framed within the guidelines established by the ‘Spain Tourism Experiences’ strategy – Innovate, Integrate and Communicate – has been structured around four main axes: Digitalization of the Spanish Wine Routes Tourism Observatory, Training Consulting in Tourism Experiences, Implementation of Circular Economy Models and Communication and Marketing.
The project involved a total of 33 stakeholders: 32 Wine Routes (participants as separate, autonomous organizations) and the Spanish Association of Wine Cities. The diversity of this partnership (united, moreover, under the Wine Routes of Spain product club) determined that one of the fundamental objectives was to achieve a certain degree of homogenization in the level of service offered by the Wine Routes and in the quality of the experiences offered by each of them. As Ana Cano, manager of ACEVIN, points out, “the project was developed as a Product Club, but it was implemented through numerous joint actions.” “The initiative didn’t emerge spontaneously as a response to a call for aid. Rather, the Experiencias Turismo España program was seen as an ideal opportunity for the national wine tourism ecosystem, led by ACEVIN, to take a step forward as one of the pillars in shaping a sustainable, modern, and top-quality tourism offering,” he notes.
Thus, nearly half of the total budget has been channeled through joint contracts; these actions, understood as “core” and “leading,” have shaped the project and necessarily had to be driven by the largest possible number of beneficiaries to generate synergies and economies of scale that would facilitate the expansion of the project to all the territories covered by the Wine Routes involved. The six key actions were:
– Digitalization of the Tourist Observatory of the Wine Routes of Spain through a
Wine Tourism Intelligence System
– Training in Sustainable Wine Tourism Experiences
– Benchmarking analysis and identification of good practices in the circular economy
– Creation of an Image Bank and new Audiovisual Material
– Digital Marketing Plan for ACEVIN and the Wine Routes of Spain brand
– Design, development and launch of a Wine Tourism Experiences Portal
Nearly two million euros for networking. The financial support received within the ‘Experiencias Turismo España’ program, awarded and approved by the Secretary of State for Tourism, has amounted to a total of 1,757,647 euros, distributed mainly through the development of joint projects, but also through specific actions for each of the participating Wine Routes. Thus, it can be said that the ‘Wine Tourism Experiences of Spain’ Program was a project conceived by and intended to strengthen networking. Overall, 13 Autonomous Communities participated; more than 1,400 active users from across the country participated in the Wine Tourism Intelligence System; 32 territories participated in in-person training activities; nearly 700 people from across the country benefited from the training program; more than 100 municipalities were visited to compile the image bank and audiovisual material, and more than 400 tourism experiences/products were created for the reservation portal. This networking will continue, as is only natural, in the implementation of each of the projects generated: participation in the development of the Wine Tourism Intelligence System as well as in the ongoing design of experiences for the marketing portal; coordination of the promotion and communication of the Wine Routes of Spain brand through the use of more than 1,500 photographs and videos; Joint development of the Marketing Plan, which includes a three-year operational plan; generation of knowledge to share within Circular Economy initiatives; training of new stakeholders through training programs, etc.
‘Wine Tourism Experiences in Spain’, as part of the ‘Spain Tourism Experiences’ program, represents a turning point in the work carried out by ACEVIN and its Wine Routes of Spain product club. Having become the benchmark for quality wine tourism in our country and a model of wine tourism management for organizations such as the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the implementation of the projects developed thanks to Next Generation EU funds will undoubtedly represent a qualitative leap that will allow this product club and the Association itself to remain at the forefront of the sector when it comes to showcasing and promoting Spain from a wine tourism perspective.
