[Translation (French-English) : EPALE France]

Despite the annual tourism statistics, which emphasise an increasing number of visitors to European wineries, training courses on wine tourism are rare. Indeed, to this day, only two universities offer training in the œnotourism sector, those being Universidade Lusófona in Portugal and Universidad de Salamanca in Spain.
 

The BACCHUS SME training course

It is in this context that six European organisations from the research and commercial sectors of the trade worked together for 31 months (September 2016 - March 2019) to create the vocational tourism training course BACCHUS SME.


The partnership comprised:

• a cooperative which supports and promotes sustainable rural development in economic, social, professional and employment terms (FR)
• three SMES (PT, AT, BG) active in the areas of vocational training, adult education and HR advice
• a university (ES) covering the fields of science and expertise relating to tourism and organisational development and with experience in interdisciplinary research
• and a local development agency (IT) which supports and promotes sustainable rural development in economic, social, professional and employment fields, operating in particular in the areas of rural tourism, from education to the environment, and covering innovation, technology transfer and vocational training
   

The BACCHUS SME project was divided into four phases:

• analysis of the organisational development of SMEs (O1)
• analysis of the œnotourism sector (O2)
• the development of the teaching programme and diagnostic tool (O3)
• and the creation of the BACCHUS SME platform (O4)

Studying vinotourism to inform course structure

The partners began by conducting two studies (O1 and O2) in their areas in order to identify the specific needs of SMEs involved in the wine industry, so as to assess their organisational development and to diversify their vinitourism offer. To do this, the partners worked with wine entrepreneurs and œnotourists as well as with public bodies, local development associations, wine tourism experts and others to whom they submitted questionnaires. Discussion groups and documentary research completed the field studies. In total, almost 500 people contributed to the work.

Interpreting study results and creating the course

Based on the results of their studies, the partners created an innovative learning programme (O3), including a diagnostic tool and training modules in blended learning (a combination of sequences of on-line and classroom-based training sessions). Through this, and in the light of the needs identified, the BACCHUS project partners developed the following modules:

1. wine tourism as an opportunity for the wine industry 
2. good practices for innovation and entrepreneurial strategy in wine tourism
3. analysis of the attractions of local and global tourism
4. the English language in the œnotourism sector
5. communication and cooperation techniques
6. marketing in the wine tourism sector
7. TICs in connection with wine tourism and digital marketing
8. wine and heritage
9. matching foods to wines 

All of the content can be seen on the BACCHUS SME online platform (O4), specially developed for the needs of the project.

In addition to the communications publicised on digital tools and in the media, the concept of the BACCHUS SME project has been presented at public seminars ((E3-E10) organised in the context of the project. These brought together almost 300 people over the six areas of the partnership (AT, BG, ES, FR, IT, PT) who were able to give their views or even test the content and tools which had been developed.

 

For more information on the BACCHUS SME project, its tools and its results, please go to:   

• the project website: www.bacchussme.eu
• the online learning platform: www.bacchuslearning.eu &nbsp
• the project Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/BacchusSME