Wine tourism in an emerging destination: The Côte Chalonnaise, Burgundy

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the wine tourism offerings and potential in the Côte Chalonnaise, a wine subregion in Burgundy, France. While the wines of Burgundy are globally renowned, the subregion of Côte Chalonnaise has lacked a strong wine or tourism identity to date. This is beginning to change, with wine stakeholders seeking to establish new markets for their wine through wine tourism initiatives, in a trend recognised in many wine regions worldwide, as wine stakeholders negotiate between local contingencies and external economic, political and social forces. Based on semi-structured interviews with wine and tourism stakeholders in the Côte d’Or and Côte Chalonnaise regions and supported by participant observation and documentary analysis, this research reveals that the Côte Chalonnaise is a peripheral region, in terms of both the reputation of its wines and tourist flows. The recent actions of local wine stakeholders—individually and collaboratively—have resulted in substantial development in wine tourism activities and attractions for visitors. The wine tourism offerings in the region look set to expand, given clear synergies between the needs of wine producers in this region to distribute their wines, and the requirement of Burgundy wine tour guides to find small vignerons willing to receive visitors.