Contribuição das práticas de sustentabilidade para a competitividade do enoturismo no setor vitivinícola: um estudo em regiões do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul - Brasil

Abstract

Research on tourism have been accounting for a considerable number of the studies developed on sustainability. The professional challenge and the contemporaneity ask for constant updating which, therefore, demands for the comprehension of this subject that is intimately related to fields such as sustainability, competitiveness, viticulture and wine tourism. Even with a growing environmental awareness in the country, many companies still focus most of their effort on immediate profit, keeping environmental and social issues aside. The Adoption of sustainable practices implies a proposal of long-term relationship between the human beings and the environment. A productive system whose development is based on sustainable principles must seek for the preservation of natural resources and must also create and stimulate social relationships at the same time as it is able to generate income for its own sustainment. This research has as objective to analyze if and how the implementation of sustainability practices of management adopted by wineries contributes to the promotion of competitiveness of wine tourism in wine regions in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. In order to achieve this objective, we opted for constructing an exploratory/qualitative and interpretative research. The method used was the qualitative modeling. The procedures were: collection of data from semi structured interviews with managers and/or entrepreneurs and consumers chosen by the qualitative sampling method. The collection of data were complemented by using the documentary analysis of commercial reports from the archives made available by the wineries studied and by the Tourism Offices of the cities where these companies are located. The contribution of this work is that it answers questionings about if and how sustainability practices implemented by wineries in the State of Rio Grande do Sul cause impact on the competitiveness of wine tourism in the wine industry, being this the main contribution, since no previous academic research focused on the subject of the present thesis were identified. This research also contributes at organizational level, since the companies studied do not have instruments to measure if and how their sustainability practices contribute to improve the competitiveness of their products and services. The results point out to a strong interference from the sustainable processes in the improvement of competitiveness in wine tourism, as well as in the commercialization of wine and other products made from grapes, according to the results of the interviews with consumers. However, in the perspective of the managers and entrepreneurs interviewed, the sustainable processes do not become a factor of competitiveness to the companies, neither in the commercialization of the products nor in the activities related to wine tourism.