The valorization of the Romanian Wine Heritage. Case study: the Oltenia Region

Oenological tourism has grown in Romania in recent years, and during the pandemic of 2020 and 2021, it was the lifeline for some travel agencies operating outside the country. They reshaped themselves and followed this niche, causing the wineries to keep their gates open even in extremely restrictive conditions for mass tourism. The most active areas in the field of oenological tourism during pandemic were Muntenia and Oltenia regions. This paper presents an analysis of the situation of the wine heritage in the Oltenia region to see the offer of oenological tourism in this historic area and from the point of view of vineyards and quality wines, internationally recognized. Some of the most famous wineries from the 5 counties included in this region are analyzed, as they are reflected from the interface with potential tourists, represented by the website of each one. In a case study, the representatives of a winery presented the development projects on the tourist line in the field of wine and terroir that makes it known. Also, the representatives of a specialized travel agency perform an x-ray of a winery visited at random in order to discover its tourist potential. A survey conducted among students at the Faculty of Tourism Geography of the University of Bucharest reflects statistics on wine consumption among young people, culture in the field and preferences for wine tourism. One of the important conclusions of the paper is that although the potential of the Oltenia region is very high for tourism based on wineries and vineyards, this heritage is very little used. The attention of winery businessmen is directed towards massive wine sales, attracting tourists is not one of their priorities and investments in tourist infrastructure are very rare.