Cultural systems and the wine tourism product

Regionally distinct cultural systems are manifest in the landscapes of all cultures. Geographers have begun to explore such cultural systems in an attempt to better understand a range of cultural geographical phenomena, but such an approach has yet to be applied to our understanding of tourism. Using Bonnemaison’s cultural systems approach, this paper explores the relationship between rural cultural systems and the production and consumption of wine tourism in two culturally distinct wine regions: Champagne, France, and Margaret River, Western Australia. In so doing, it highlights the importance of situating wine tourism within the wider system of rural land tenure, local mythologies of rurality and the regional wine cultural complex.

► A cultural systems approach explores tourism from a non-tourism perspective.
► Focusing on the wine landscape helps explain regional differences in wine tourism.
► Frontier pastoralism has shaped in wine tourism in Margaret River, Australia.
► Wine tourism in Champagne is influenced by the village being the site of production.
► Land tenure systems have influenced wine tourism in Champagne & Margaret River.