Wine tourism, designations of origin and business performance : an analysis applied to the Valencian Community wine industry

The aim of this research is to analyze the effect of wine routes and Designations of Origin (DOs) on the competitiveness of wineries belonging to the Valencian Community, given that, to the best of our knowledge, such relationships have not been analyzed in this wine region. To this end, information was obtained on the operating income, results for the year, equity, level of indebtedness and number of employees of the 90 wineries belonging to this wine-growing territory. Subsequently, a comparison of means was made, calculating Student's t-test for independent samples with the SPSS software, based on whether the wineries belonged to the wine routes and DOs existing in the Valencian Community. The results show the wineries that are members of a wine route and/or a DO have, on average, a higher operating income, higher equity and a higher number of employees, and these differences are statistically significant. This research may be useful for general managers who are considering the development of wine tourism activities, as well as for those who are thinking of joining DOs, since, as was empirically demonstrated, these actions can improve the economic performance of their wineries and, as a consequence, their competitiveness.