Wine Tourism in the Province of Alicante (Spain). Revitalization of Wine Heritage as a Strategy for Tourism Diversification and Differentiation in Mature Tourist Destinations

Tourism in the twenty-first century has been marked by the need to seek new development strategies based on formulas for diversification and differentiation. In this context, the incorporation of wine heritage as a cultural product has become an axis of tourism development in various localities, both in consolidated coastal destinations and in emerging inland municipalities. This integrated incorporation of the territory, tourism, and wine has taken place through individual initiatives or coordinated through the so-called Alicante Wine Route, with varying degrees of development and not always based on planned criteria that integrate the landscape, accessibility, heritage interpretation, and the incorporation of unique experiences. This research analyses the wine tourism offer of the 16 municipalities associated with this initiative, in order to verify their level of tourism functionality. The techniques to be used will be mainly qualitative in order to ascertain the current degree of structuring of the wine tourism-oriented offer through a series of indicators, based on fieldwork and in-depth interviews, which will serve to assess the suitability of the way in which the activation of wine heritage is taking place.