1185 | 965 | The impact of the covid-19 epidemic on the development of enotourism in Poland

For the past 30 years, Poland has been experiencing a renaissance in viticulture and wine production. In 2005. Poland was included among the EU wine countries in zone A (northern zone), which includes Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Sweden and northern Germany. These are the areas where viticulture is most difficult. Despite this, vineyards and wine production in Poland are becoming less and less exotic and enotourism is developing dynamically, becoming an important part of the activities of many Polish wineries. The covid-19 pandemic has shaken this young form of tourism. Using interviews conducted with vineyard owners and representatives of winemakers’ associations, an attempt was made to assess the level of development of Polish enotourism « during and after the epidemic ». An attempt was made to answer the question: Is enotourism still one of the basic ways of diversifying the income of Polish winemakers? It was found that in the first phase of the health crisis, enotourism was non-existent – ordered accommodation and tastings by both individual customers and larger groups were cancelled. Over time, Polish winemakers began to turn limitations into opportunities. It became almost common to offer vineyard tours combined with wine tasting outdoors, places for campers appeared in the vineyards, contact with customers was maintained using social media (e.g. education, popularisation of Polish winemaking). It seems that in the case of Polish enotourism, the crisis was creative._x000D_

Ewa Kacprzak
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań
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