The influence of wine tourism on the internationalization of Italian SMEs

The principal aim of this paper was to examine the internationalization process of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with a particular focus on the influence of international tourism on marketing strategies. To achieve this objective, eight case studies of Italian SMEs producing a specific type of wine (Bianchello delMetauro) have been examined. The case firms were selected as: they (a) had their headquarters in Pesaro-Urbino province, Marche region, in Italy, (b) produced Bianchello delMetauro wine, (c) owned a wine store or a farm for receiving tourists, and (d) organized events or initiatives for attracting tourists. In this study, Italy was selected as the country of origin due to the long tradition in the production of wine, with a variety of types to which a specific local area corresponds. The Bianchello del Metauro production area, located in Marche region, was selected due to its closeness to the Adriatic coast, which has a strong touristic attractiveness, and to the presence of a relevant historical, cultural and artistic heritage, which still exert an influence on many craftsmanship based manufacturing activities. A single local production area was chosen to avoid the influence of location-related factors in the analysis of the observed cases. Findings from the analyzed case support the argument that, in the majority of cases, international tourism permits wine SMEs to create a relationship/network with tourists’ foreign market and to expand internationally. Moreover, what emerged is a network construction process, which starts from the visit of tourists to the company site and leads to contacts with importers, retailers or restaurants in the tourists’ home country. A relational connection role is played by tourists, because of their willingness to have the opportunity to buy in their country the same products they enjoyed during their trip, and even to maintain a personal relationship with the wine producer. In several cases, international tourists suggested an importer to the wine producer or decided to contact an importer themselves. Some relevant management implications can be derived from the results of this research. Wine producers should pay great attention for attracting tourists and creating personal relationships/networks with them, since this can help to expand to international markets. Therefore, proper organizational, communication and relational processes should be introduced. As this paper was based on few case studies, a more extensive research should follow to measure the relevance of the mechanisms that emerged. Research should be also conducted in different regions of the same country and in different countries, taking into account the differences based on manufacturing firms’ size