Do German winegrowers see a connection between biodiversity and wine tourism?

1 Introduction

The intensification of agriculture has led to a dramatic decline in biodiversity in Germany (Methorst et al., 2021). However, there is a growing willingness among many stakeholders to promote biodiversity, including viticulture. The long standing time of the vines over several decades opens the possibility to establish long-term measures for the conservation of biodiversity in wine landscapes. Species-rich cover crops between the rows and their appropriate maintenance are promising ways to address the issue. Another possibility is to convert uneconomic parcel components to create more ecologically valuable areas (Hönig & Deppisch, 2018).

Since the landscape in wine regions plays a crucial role in attracting tourists (Bruwer & Alant, 2009), the question arises whether and to what extent such measures influence tourism. Studies show that some viticultural landscapes, such as historic landscapes, have greater appeal than others (e.g. Job & Murphy, 2006). Biodiversity elements in agricultural landscapes enhance the attractiveness of the landscape (van Zanten et al., 2016), which improves destination attractiveness (Brown, 2006) leading to higher tourist satisfaction (Kirillova & Lehto, 2015). Even if there is still a need for research in the wine sector, it could be assumed that these findings might also be applicable to wine destinations, but what are the winegrowers’ views on the subject?

Understanding the perspective of the winegrowers is important. After all, they are the ones who ultimately implement and maintain the biodiversity measures in the vineyards and the surrounding landscape. What remains unclear is if they see a connection between biodiversity and tourism or if they are even aware of the importance of the landscape in attracting tourists. This article deals with the question whether German winegrowers see a connection between biodiversity and tourism in wine regions and how they believe this connection might manifest itself.

2 Literature Review

Wine tourism can take on many forms. A wine tasting, the combination of wine and food, a wine festival, a hike through the vineyards – these are all examples of wine tourism experiences. Even though wine is at the heart of the experience (Hall et al., 2000), the experiences themselves can thus be very different. In the academic literature, wine tourism is usually associated with the food component: examples are food tourism (Hall & Mitchell, 2006), culinary tourism (Müller & Dreyer, 2010), gastronomic tourism (UNWTO, 2017), or gourmet tourism (Etcheverria, 2008). It is important to note that it has also been referred to as heritage or cultural tourism (e. g. Jätzold, 1993), but the usual argument is that wine tourism is primarily defined by the combination of wine and food culture.

Tafel and Szolnoki (2021) examined differences between wine tourists and other tourist segments in German wine regions. The authors confirmed that wine and food are indeed the two most important motivational differences between wine tourists and other tourist segments. However, their findings revealed that landscape is still even more important than the food component. This is supported by other researchers such as Bruwer and Alant (2009, p. 235) who even say that the “most important characteristic of the entire winescape is the region’s scenic beauty”. It could be argued that the wine tourism literature has perhaps paid too little attention to the landscape aspect, in favor of the food component. Before looking at the topic of wine landscapes, however, we first want to address the overall role of landscape in the travel decision-making process.

Holiday decision-making processes can be divided into internal forces (push) and external forces (pull). While push forces shape the initial internal decision to take a vacation, e. g. the search for adventure or rest and relaxation, pull forces are responsible for the subsequent decision on the choice of destination (Crompton, 1979). Correia and Pimpão (2008), who applied Crompton’s (1979) push-pull model using a structural equation model, found that the landscape plays a strong role in the pull factors. This means that although the landscape does not make people decide to go on vacation, it plays a central role in the choice of destination (Correia & Pimpão, 2008).

In the case of wine regions, the three aspects of winegrowing, landscape and tourism have a special interaction with each other. While the landscape has obvious effects on winegrowing due to geomorphological components, etc., winegrowing can also have a strong influence on the landscape. The landscape has a major impact on tourism because of its importance in attracting tourists. And as more and more winemakers focus on wine tourism, the touristic element has a strong influence on viticulture. Ultimately, the three components of viticulture, landscape, and tourism form a circular interplay from which all three components benefit (Tafel et al., 2023).

What makes the issue difficult to assess is that there are many different types of wine landscapes, and the effect on tourism can be expected to vary as a result. Also, landscapes are changing, especially agricultural landscapes in Europe. In German wine regions, large-scale land consolidation measures have led to vineyard plots becoming larger so that winegrowers can operate more profitably (Job & Murphy, 2006). However, the impact of these landscape changes on people does not seem to have been adequately considered at the time, because landscape changes can have a major influence on the identity of the local population (Daniel et al., 2012) as well as on the attractiveness for potential visitors (Brown, 2006). Also, many different organisms have lost their habitat as a result (Leyer & Mody, 2022), which leads to the issue of biodiversity.

Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the level of genes, species, and ecosystems. It is therefore about the diversity of different species, the different genetic varieties in the species as well as ecosystem diversity (United Nations, 2010). Due to the increasing intensification of winegrowing in Germany, more and more habitats in German wine landscapes have been lost (Leyer & Mody, 2022). To effectively promote biodiversity in cultural landscapes, it is not so important how the fields are managed, but rather how to increase the diversity of the landscape by creating structural elements (Tscharntke et al., 2021). In terms of winegrowing, it is most effective to remove certain parts of vineyards that are uneconomical and instead create structural elements such as trees, hedges, deadwood, or rock piles where all types of organisms can live (Leyer & Mody, 2022). The question is what influence these elements have on the perceived attractiveness and recreational value of this landscape.

Some biodiversity elements in the landscape are easier for tourists to even see than others. While the plantation of trees and hedges might be easy to detect and therefore contribute to the aesthetic value of these landscapes (Daniel et al., 2012), species-rich vegetation in between vineyard rows are probably less easy to detect. In the wine sector, there is yet little research on how higher biodiversity affects tourism attractiveness. However, research from other agricultural production sectors shows that more diverse agricultural landscapes are more attractive and have higher recreational value than monotonous landscapes (van Zanten et al., 2016). In addition, when it comes to attracting tourists, the historical value of wine landscapes plays a role which, in the case of wine production in Germany, is inherently linked to steep slope viticulture. As Job and Murphy (2006, p. 339) state, “steep hillsides or small farm size are advantageous from a tourism perspective. It is the unique combination of natural scenery enhanced by the long tradition of wine growing that attracts so many visitors”.

Interestingly, steep slope winegrowing can have a positive impact on biodiversity. On one hand, this is due to the fact that they often have to be cultivated by hand and thus less heavy machinery disturbs the environment, and on the other hand, they are often enriched by structural elements such as dry stone walls, where many plants and creatures have a habitat (Leyer & Mody, 2022). What is problematic is the increased amount of work involved in managing these steep vineyards, because this leads to a higher wine price, which most wine consumers are not willing to pay. As a result, more and more of these historic landscapes are disappearing (Strub et al., 2021), which then negatively impacts both biodiversity and tourism.

Research has repeatedly demonstrated that there is a clear link between biodiversity and tourism (e. g. van der Duim & Caalders, 2002; Nyaupane & Poudel, 2011; Hall, 2010). The issue has also entered the political discourse. For example, the UNWTO (2010) describes the combination of the two issues as an effective way to achieve sustainable regional development. In the wine sector, the arguably most prominent example of the combination is the WWF’s Biodiversity Wine Initiative in South Africa which resulted in the development of an app combining the aspects called Champion Wine Farm Guide. Accompanying research on the WWF initiative goes so far as to suggest that tourists play a central role in the conservation and active promotion of biodiversity in South Africa’s wine regions. This is because tourists bring the necessary purchasing power to finance these initiatives, which include jobs in conservation, but also ensure the income of the responsible winegrowers (WWF, 2009).

Winegrowers are often considered to be responsible for taking care of wine landscapes. This not only includes the maintenance of the vineyards, but also of the surrounding structures in the landscapes, such as the historic vineyard terraces in the steep slopes (UNESCO, 2021). In addition, Also, findings from a recent survey in the Mosel wine region show that 96 % of the winegrowers there consider themselves landscapers (ZALF). However, this goes beyond their traditional task of growing grapes and leads to an additional effort that should be compensated, perhaps even incentivized. To achieve this, it is first important to understand the winegrowers’ point of view. So far, it is unclear how winegrowers in Germany view the connection between biodiversity and tourism in German wine regions. It is thus the aim of this paper to investigate the relationship between biodiversity and tourism in German wine regions from the winegrowers’ point of view.

3 Material and Methods

To find out if German winegrowers see a connection between biodiversity and wine tourism, qualitative interviews were carried in all 13 German wine regions. In each of the region, four wine producers were selected as interview partners, resulting in a sample of 52 interviews. Even though the sample size is larger than necessary to achieve a saturation effect in the results (Hennink & Kaiser, 2022), it was important to interview different size categories and types of wine producers, as these can differ greatly in terms of production and commercialization. Furthermore, the interviews only cover a small proportion of the approximately 16,000 wineries (2016) in Germany (Wines of Germany, 2022). For these reasons, wineries in three different size categories were interviewed in each region, as well as one winegrowers’ cooperative per region, which are traditionally very important in the German wine industry due to their high production volumes. A first version of the questions was created, checked for comprehensibility and practicability in two pretest interviews with wineries and revised accordingly.

In order to ensure that the wineries are as representative as possible of their respective regions, the recruiting of the wineries was done through the collaboration of experts from each of the 13 central regional winegrowers’ associations. The experts were instructed to select the wineries in their respective regions according to the following three criteria:

• type of company: three wineries and one cooperative

• company size of wineries: small (below 8 hectares), medium-sized (8 to 15 hectares) and large (over 15 hectares); these size categories were selected because they represent the average size categories of touristic wineries in Germany (Tafel below Szolnoki, 2021)

• As typical as possible for the region within the just mentioned first two selection criteria

Since not only vineyard management but also the overall landscape structure is crucial for promoting biodiversity and tourism attractiveness, the role of landscape in relation to tourism was first addressed before addressing the core question on biodiversity. Thus, the questions asked were the following:

1. In your opinion, what role does the landscape play with regards to tourism?

2. How do you rank vineyards in this respect?

3. Do you see a connection between biodiversity in wine landscapes and tourism?

Data collection took place between August and November 2021. All interviews were conducted by telephone. The audio sequences were recorded and then transcribed. The evaluation was carried out using the MaxQDA software according to content analysis by Mayring (2015). During the process of analysis, newly emerging findings were gathered, inductively categorized, aggregated into clusters and interpreted.

4 Results

This chapter is divided into two sections: The first section (4.1) addresses questions 1 and 2, i. e., the role of landscape in tourist attractiveness as well as the vineyards within it. The second section (4.2) then focuses on the main question of the perceived relationship between tourism and biodiversity in wine landscapes.

4.1 The perceived role of the landscape and the vineyards for tourism

The results in Figure 1 show that respondents assume that the landscape plays the decisive role why tourists visit wine regions. Connected to that they think that the preservation of the cultural landscape is of major importance. Also, it is vital for them to take care of wine landscapes and maintain them. To a certain extent, they see themselves in the role of landscapers and thus tourism promoters.

The role of vineyards in the landscape is of particular importance according to the respondents. In their opinion, winegrowing is the landscape-shaping element that makes a wine region a wine region. They see it as an important marketing tool and relevant image symbol of the region as well. Here, too, the respondents address the role of winegrowers as landscapers: They see themselves as responsible for the care of the vineyards as well as for other central elements in the landscapes. In their opinion, the historic vineyards that are cultivated by hand play a particularly significant role. The interviewees talk about how these historic, sometimes terraced vineyards in particular have enormous importance for tourism in their view.

Conversely, they see tourism as central to the preservation and maintenance of these traditional wine landscapes, because when tourists visit, they realize why the wines produced there tend to be more expensive. Interviewees believe that understanding the cultural value and hard work involved in cultivating these vineyards is best understood when visitors experience these vineyards and the challenges they face on site for themselves.

Figure 1:

The perceived role of the landscape and the vineyards for tourism

4.2 The perceived relationship between biodiversity and tourism in German wine regions

Of all the winegrowers interviewed, 87 % see a mutual benefit between biodiversity and tourism in German wine regions (see Figure 2). They estimate the attractiveness of biodiverse wine landscapes to be higher for tourists than that of what they describe as monotonous wine landscapes. However, the respondents suspect that this is an unconscious mind process that visitors are not really aware of. Respondents believe that a diverse landscape has a special appeal and that visitors enjoy a variety of flora and fauna. The winegrowers also state that the topic of biodiversity meets a current zeitgeist in society, e. g. through the political movement Fridays for Future. The interviewees are of the opinion that visitors to German wine regions are increasingly interested in this topic and that communicating biodiversity in the wine landscape in a touristic way could have a positive influence on regional marketing. In their opinion, it is therefore in the interest of the entire region to promote and market this aspect more strongly.

According to the interviewees, winegrowing and biodiversity can be well combined. Especially in comparison to other agricultural products, winegrowing has clear advantages, e. g. through surrounding structures such as slopes, stone walls, woody structures, but also through the vineyard rows themselves. From their point of view, the three themes of viticulture, biodiversity and tourism are mutually beneficial. The conversion or ecological upgrading of certain areas always has a touristic benefit as well. Interviewees think that animals in the vineyard could also make trips to wine regions more attractive for young families with children.

Only a smaller proportion of the interviewed winegrowers do not see a direct link between biodiversity in wine landscapes and tourism (13 % of respondents). They believe that visitors would not even notice such measures. In addition, they think that classically managed vineyards appear more well-kept and accurate, which they consider more attractive from a tourism perspective than a more diverse wine landscape.

Figure 2:

The perceived relationship between biodiversity and tourism in German wine regions

5 Discussion

The wine landscape plays a central role in attracting tourists (Bruwer & Alant, 2009). Results of our study show that the wineries see it the same way, which shows that they are aware of the role of the landscape in this respect. The literature shows that historic wine landscapes are of high value for both natural scenery and tourist attraction (e. g. Job & Murphy, 2006). The winegrowers see it the same way, even if they generally speak of vineyards that require manual cultivation rather than of historic wine landscapes. This may open an interesting research direction to further explore the link between traditional vineyards, cultivation by hand, and tourist attraction. In general, diverse agricultural landscapes are more attractive to visitors than monotonous landscapes; and these diverse landscapes promote biodiversity (Methorst et al., 2021). The opinion of wineries on this is divided. However, only a minority of 13 % of the interviewees in this study think that visitors do not see this, while the rest thinks that biodiverse wine landscapes are more attractive to visitors. At the same time, there is an interesting connection: Those who support the positive impact of biodiversity on tourist attractiveness believe that the thought process is subconscious. It would certainly be interesting to the scientific community to pursue this hypothesis further through consumer research.

Promoting biodiversity in vineyards and the surrounding landscape can be challenging for the winegrowers: arguably the best way to do so is to take out parts of the vineyards and establish biodiversity structures in the landscape, such as hedges or trees (Leyer & Mody, 2022). However, winegrowers may experience yield losses as a consequence. In addition, these landscape features must be maintained, which reinforces the already perceived role of winegrowers as landscapers. However, as wineries increasingly create habitats in wine landscapes, they are taking on roles that go beyond the traditional tasks of producing healthy grapes and selling grapes, juice or wine. The additional benefits they create benefit society as a whole: not only do residents live in a more pleasant environment (Daniel et al., 2012), but such landscapes can also attract more tourists (Brown, 2006) and are thus important for maintaining structures in German wine regions, most of which belong to rural areas. It would therefore seem fair to reimburse the winegrowers for these tasks. In this context, the concept of ecosystem services could be applied to define the measures and the associated ecological, economic and social effects.

There are also implications for wine marketing. Tempest et al. (2010) investigated the importance of landscape for the perception of wine quality by combining a wine tasting with visual landscape stimuli. The authors found that presenting a beautiful visual landscape stimulus can lead to a more positive perception of taste and smell as well as the overall quality of a wine. This raises interesting questions about wine labeling and branding. It could be argued that coherence between the image and the wine itself should be a greater focus in brand development.

This study is not without limitations. It is important to see that the results presented only show the wineries’ perspective on the issue of biodiversity and (wine) tourism. In a next step, it would be useful to investigate the perspective of wine consumers and tourists. Questions to be answered are for example: are biodiverse wine landscapes in general more attractive? What role does manual labor play in this regard? More broadly, how does landscape diversity influence the attractiveness of wine landscapes? If so, is this true that this effect might be more of a subconscious thought or can they actually realize the relationship? the absence of scientific insights on this topic from a consumer perspective, it would be useful to first gather qualitative insights, for example through focus group discussions with (potential) visitors to wine regions, e. g. wine consumers.

6 Conclusions

German winegrowers are aware of the central factor of the landscape in attracting tourists. They further see the preservation and maintenance of the landscape as crucial to this attractiveness. In this regard, they consider themselves landscapers, which in turn helps to keep tourism thriving in their region. In particular, the respondents consider vineyards that have to be cultivated by hand, such as historic terraced sites, to be especially relevant for attracting visitors. These wine landscapes are also more favorable than modern, monoculture wine landscapes (Leyer & Mody, 2022). According to the wineries interviewed, tourism is one of the most important factors in maintaining the cultivation of these historic vineyards, as consumers best understand the high amount of work involved when visiting these sites themselves. Although opinions differ on the relationship between biodiversity and tourism in wine regions, almost 9 out of 10 respondents believe that a biodiverse landscape has a positive impact on tourism in wine regions and vice versa. They thus reflect what has already been proven, at least in research on other agricultural production (van Zanten et al., 2016). Overall, they believe that biodiversity is easier to implement in winegrowing than in the production of other agricultural products which opens up great opportunities to create landscape structures in German wine regions that bring long-term positive effects for biodiversity as well as for tourism. This work is not without limitations. Although it provides an insight into the views of winegrowers on the subject of wine tourism and biodiversity, the results need to be backed up by quantitative studies. In addition, the perspective of tourists should be included in the discourse. It seems reasonable to assume that biodiversity in wine landscapes has a similarly positive effect on tourists as in other regions not characterized by winegrowing. However, further studies investigating the tourists’ perspective are necessary to allow reliable assertions.