Tourism, heroic viticulture and sustainable development through storytelling: the case of the wineries of the Ribera Sacra in Galicia (Spain)

Abstract

Wine culture is widely rooted around the world and currently represents an opportunity for the sustainable development of rural territories. Academic research has identified that tangible and intangible heritage are elements of great interest for interaction with tourists, wineries, and the territory. Thus, storytelling has become a powerful marketing tool for wine tourism promotion. This paper aims to know how the wineries of the Ribeira Sacra AO in Galicia (Spain) that practice heroic viticulture construct storytelling. The research has analyzed the typologies of storytelling used and the heritage elements that it incorporates. To this end, two-phase research was designed and executed: the first phase subjected a representative group of wineries to an e-mail questionnaire. Subsequently, a smaller panel of wineries was randomly selected to undergo a semi-structured interview. The data obtained were subjected to a content analysis with the help of Nvivo software. The results made it possible to identify the categories most used by the wineries, which are the stories directly related to the territory and heritage, and the stories related to grapes and vineyards. On the other hand, the wineries recognize the value of heroic viticulture, so the most used heritage elements were the wine landscape, the nature of the rivers, or the traditional architecture, among others. Storytelling has created stories that generate competitive experiences in the wine tourism market.