An Analysis of Wine Tourism in Italy from a Strategic Service-Based Perspective

This study aims to investigate wine tourism from a strategic point of view in an attempt to understand how service orientation is perceived in Italian offers. Service-dominant logic (SDL) is a key approach to investigate the integration of activities involving various actors and customers/tourists, considering that value cocreation is fundamental for the success of wine tourism offers and is based on the exchange of knowledge. Methodologically, by following a mainstream literature review that assists in understanding the roles of both service and SDL in wine tourism, we attempt first to use the annual reports of the “Città del Vino” (Italy’s most important association of wine territories) to show that there is an absence of a service-based perspective on the part of the majority of Italian wine tourism operators. Next, we propose an explanatory interpretation applying the 10 foundational premises of SDL to the general system of a territorial offer of wine tourism, which is considered key to a strategic analysis of wine tourism. The aim of this application is essentially threefold: first, to potentially help wine tourism operators to organize their service offers; second, to promote collaboration among wine producers; and third, to improve the institutional governance of wine territories in terms of planning and promoting wine tourism systems more efficiently and effectively.