The Sea of Wine Project to Promote the Black Sea Region as a Wine Tourism Destination

Visiting wine-producing areas is a unique way to experience a country or even an entire region with its culture and attractions. The Black Sea region is a gorgeous location for wine lovers and the growing touristic interest in the region creates a great opportunity for holistic promotion of the Black Sea region as a global wine tourism destination.

The Sea of Wine project aims to promote the positioning of the Black Sea region as an important wine tourism destination. It will help wine tourism stakeholders develop common approaches for the promotion of their wine travel products.

Within the 26-month project, we have developed country-level wine routes and the city and wine country-level wine routes have been incorporated into a single Black Sea Wine Route. The Black Sea Wine Route will soon be available at an in-house built ICT platform that will provide travelers and businesses with all the necessary information about the route, countries and their offerings, and how they can visit and enjoy one of the oldest and most unique winemaking regions in the world.

PROJECT MAIN RESULTS

• A comprehensive database of the wine tourism industry in the Black Sea region
• Country-level thematic wine routes
• The Black Sea Wine Route
• ICT platform
• ‘The Black Sea Wine Glass Member’ label
• ‘Let’s Talk about Wine’ event
• ‘Wines of the Black Sea’ event

PROGRESS ACHIEVED SO FAR

Together with the other project partners, we have worked extensively to have several major achievements.

• We have prepared the Report on Background project analysis that capitalizes upon existing EU projects and best practices of macro-level significance EU & Black Sea regarding local and regional tourism development and social entrepreneurship. It was used as a stepping stone for the next deliverables. Overall, the report encapsulates the importance of wine tourism in all partner countries, as well as the initiatives supporting this form of tourism in the Black Sea Basin area, highlighting the analogs and the lessons learned, common challenges, and common opportunities to yield the efficient implementation of the BSB1034 Sea of Wine Project.
• We have developed the country-level comprehensive database of the wine tourism sector: wineries, grape varieties, wines, wine-related HORECA, travel agencies working with wine packages, wine events in each country which will be used further for the development of country and regional level wine routes as well as for the elaboration and development of the ICT Platform. This was reached via collaborative efforts of wine and tourism industry representatives in partner countries, specifically databases and information provided by the ministries of tourism and agriculture, statistical services, different agencies, and associations dealing with wine and tourism issues, travel agencies working with wine tourism packages, etc. We have developed a common methodology towards the creation of the database (developed by the PP AUTH – Greece and commonly accepted – followed by all partners). It provides information on wineries, HoReCa, travel agencies and individuals, wine festivals and events, and other tourist attractions as well as describes the most popular wine varieties for all countries.
• We have created country-level thematic wine routes – 6 for Armenia (21 wineries), 6 for Georgia (25 wineries), 7 for Ukraine (49 wineries), and 13 for Greece (60 wineries). Each wine route has its own storytelling and thematic focus ranging from history, culture, gastronomy, myths, adventure, philosophy, arts, city break, spa, parks to ethnos, legends, flowers, and indigenous grape varieties.
• We have started the wine tourism training sessions in the project countries. These training sessions, entitled ‘Wine Tourism: Tapping into New Opportunities’ offer a truly innovative study syllabus for wine, HoReCa and wine-related tourism industry representatives.
• We continuously work with the wine industry, HoReCa, and media representatives to raise awareness about the importance of wine tourism in the Black Sea region. For more information on other ongoing activities, please follow the Sea of Wine project on Facebook and Instagram.

ESTIMATED OUTPUTS

• Enhanced recognition of the Black Sea region as a wine tourism destination through the Black Sea Wine Route that will incorporate country-level wine routes and be presented on a dedicated digital platform.
• Capacity building of wine tourism-related companies, particularly in marketing wine tourism products.
• Development and launch of two large-scale wine tourism events: ‘Let’s Talk About Wine’ and ‘Wines of The Black Sea’.
• Development of the common label ‘The Black Sea Wine Glass Member’ which helps promote cross-border business opportunities by making wine tourism products more comprehensible and comparable.

PROJECT PARTNERS        

Lead Partner: International Center for Agribusiness Research and Education Foundation, Armenia

Partner: Georgian Center for Agribusiness Development, Georgia

Partner: Odessa National Academy of Food Technologies, Ukraine

Partner: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

The project is co-implemented in 2020-2022 by The ICARE Foundation, Georgian Center for Agribusiness Development, Odessa National Academy of Food Technologies, and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki through the Joint Operational Programme Black Sea Basin 2014-2020 funded by the European Neighbourhood Instrument in close collaboration with the Joint Technical Secretariat.