The Wine Tourist Cannot Live by Wine Alone: Considerations for Conceptualizing a Restaurant at an Established Wine Tourism Site

Abstract

As the demand for wine tourism has grown, so has the range of products available to meet it. Vila Nova de Gaia in northern Portugal offers the opportunity for a unique case study of the current state of wine tourism provision. The research question for this chapter focuses on what are the best practices for a restaurant directly linked to a Port Wine Lodge (either on the same site or adjacent). The research problem arose from the practical need for Symington Family Estates (hereafter SFE), one of Portugal’s leading wine producers, to plan how best to open a restaurant on the premises of Cockburn’s Lodge. The aim of this chapter is therefore to set out best practice guidelines for the Cockburn’s concept restaurant. To understand the current state of the restaurant concept, unstructured interviews were conducted with decision makers within the company. Online customer reviews were then collected from TripAdvisor for eight restaurants in the area associated with a port wine lodge. These reviews were then coded and analysed thematically, in order to understand the best and worst practices affecting the customer experience from 2019 to 2022. These findings were then used to suggest best practices for future restaurant planning and decision-making.