#OpenDoorWein - A wine tourism initiative!
Wine & Tourism is a perfect networking combination! A teaching cooperation project of the Wine Campus Neustadt funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection combines entrepreneurial spirit with research expertise.
Tourism is an important economic factor in all German wine-growing regions and makes a substantial contribution to the development of rural areas. The coronavirus pandemic has hit the tourism industry hard, but has also opened up the opportunity to rethink tourism and design sustainable and future-oriented offers. In line with this motto, Sarah Janson - co-owner of a Palatinate winery - founded the #OpenDoorWein network in the middle of the crisis year 2020 to work with like-minded people to think about how to boost wine tourism in the Palatinate and attract more tourists to the wineries. The aim of #OpenDoorWein is to offer interesting experiences around the product wine in a structured way and for a fee. The aim is to reduce inhibitions among tourists to visit wineries. At the same time, the wineries can make an important contribution to the added value of their business.
In the summer semester of 2021, Sarah Janson presented her idea for the first time as part of a guest lecture at the Wine Campus Neustadt. This was followed by a research project funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK), which was implemented by Prof. Dr. Laura Ehm 's team in the winter semester 2021/22. In the 6th semester of the dual study program Viticulture & Enology, wine tourism is on the curriculum. In order to further support the wine tourism network in implementing the results, a teaching cooperation project was then implemented in the summer semester of 2022 together with Worms University of Applied Sciences and Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences. This enabled students to work on a topic of practical relevance across universities and benefit from each other's expertise: The viticulture and wine marketing expertise of the Neustadt students was perfectly complemented by the tourism and marketing expertise of the students from Worms and Heilbronn universities.
The project started with a joint kick-off at the Schloss Janson winery, where the students were invited by the winery to take part in a wine experience tour and learned a lot about the #OpenDoorWein network, the idea of "open wineries" and the design of wine experience offers. A joint seminar day at the Wine Campus Neustadt was used to impart basic knowledge about wine tourism in the German wine regions, to work intensively on the projects and to give each other feedback across projects. Finally, the students visited the #OpenDoorWinery Weinwerk Reinhardt in Ruppertsberg and tested the Wine Flights, which are offered to visitors to the winery as an alternative to a classic, discussed wine tasting in the vinotheque. After the long corona time, everyone enjoyed the exchange and the cozy get-together afterwards.
In order to cover all topics, the student teams worked on various sub-projects: The Neustadt students started by analyzing the wine tourism offers of the participating wineries and, together with the wineries, developed an individual #OpenDoorWein concept for the professional design of the wine experience offers. This sub-project was supervised by Prof. Ehm from the Wine Campus Neustadt. The Worms students analysed possibilities for a sustainable organizational structure of the network. Another group developed a marketing and social media concept and analyzed available booking platforms that can be used to make the offers digitally bookable. A wine-hopping concept was also presented. Prof. Dr. Knut Scherhag from Worms University of Applied Sciences supervised this group work as part of the course "Practical Destination Development". The Heilbronn students focused on the question of whether and how the #OpenDoorWein initiative could be established in other wine-growing regions outside the Palatinate. They were supervised by Prof. Dr. Ralf Vogler. The results were then presented and made available to the members of #OpenDoorWein . The response was consistently positive. Many suggestions have already been put directly into practice or are being used as a basis for discussion to further develop the network.
The diversity of ideas and results shows: The network idea is worthwhile - in the spirit of #OpenDoorWein.
And if you would now like to book an #OpenDoorWein experience, you can find what you are looking for right here.
The results of the research project can also be found online.
Image credit "Open door at a winery": Colourbox
Photo credit "Portrait Laura Ehm": Stephan Presser Photography