Designation of origin Alicante (Spain): a preliminary study for the introduction of enotourism

Abstract

The need to obtain sustainable rural development, which combines respect for the environment with the generation of wealth and the creation of jobs, is leading various public and private administrations and companies to promote activities which are parallel and complementary to the traditional activities of the rural areas. This work presents an econometric study which evaluates the economic potential of the introduction of the activity of enotourism (wine tourism) in the geographic area of Alicante (Spain) as a designation of origin. For this, it analyzes the structure of an associative movement based on the traditional wine producing cooperatives in this area, enabling the creation of new market sectors in response to the demand based on this emerging tourism activity. Key words: Enotourism - Rural Development – Cooperatives - Spain.