South Balaton Wine Route Association
About this good practice
The Balaton Region is a funcional region composed of territories of three counties in the middle of Transdanubia, Hungary. The wine route association operates on the southern lakeside of Balaton, which belongs to Somogy county. Its area of operation covers 37 settlements, 3200 hectares, 2800 grape producers, 60 wineries and numerous restaurants, accommodations. The area is heavily focusing on tourism, in which wine and gastronomy plays a key role. Unlike summer tourism, which is concentrating on the direct lakeside, wine tourism is much more widespread in the peripheral areas as well, in the radius of 5-20 km from the lake.
The wines of South Balaton are typical regional prodcuts, building on the unique terroir of the area, decreases seasonality of tourism, decreases territorial concentration and integrates a wide range of service providers. The qualification system used by the wine route association is based on an Interreg IIIC project (Vintour, 2007), defining 3 levels of wine route service quality.
The association carries out coordination of wine tourism, including certification of the service providers, promotion activities (online, signposts) organisation of events. It is financed by the contribution of its members (local governments, service providers), and occasional national grants. Future plans include the combination of wine/gastro tourism with other types of tourism and becoming a destination management organisation.
Resources needed
Operation of the association costs approx. 8000 EUR per year. Total annual costs including events amount to approx. 18 000 EUR per year.
Evidence of success
The wine route covers 37 settlements, producers cover 3200 hectares, 2800 grape growers. The Association itself has 78 members. They include 43 certified service providers, including 29 wine celars, 8 restaurants, 6 accommodation facilities. Majority of their members operate more of these and constantly improve and diversify their service. The certification system is based on the one developed in the Interreg IIIC project "Vintour" in 2007.
Potential for learning or transfer
The wine route and the association itself provides several transferable elements:
- Networking of dominantly rural settlements in tourism service provision. This is a particularly important feature, as in Hungary tourim is a responsibility of local governments, they are also the beneficiaries of tourism tax. In its area of operation there are no public or public-private destination management organisations, therefore the wine route fills a gap. The assocation, as a bottom-up initiative, is financed by its members and national grants.
- The wine route covers also the so called "shadow settlements" that belong to the belt that has no direct access to the Balaton lake, therefore don't benefit directly from the tourism on the lakeside. This decreases territorial concentration of tourism activities and decreases seasonality.
- It is a good example of a sustainable Interreg IIIC project, as the certification system is based on the one, which was elaborated in that project, in 2007.
Further information
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Good practice owner
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