Evaluation of the sustainability of Urla wine tourism and Urla vineyard road route

The increasing interest in Wine Tourism has made it necessary to reveal the physical conditions of this sector and the observations and experiences of consumers. It is considered important to reveal the current situation for the change and development of the sector. In this study, it was investigated how the sustainability of Urla wine tourism and the Urla Vineyard Route were evaluated by visitors and wine producers on the Urla Vineyard Road. The research was carried out with a case study from qualitative research methods. The sample of the research consisted of the Tripadvisor site, 300 customer comments and four Urla Vineyard Road wine house operators. The data obtained from winery customer reviews and interviews with business owners were analyzed by content analysis method using the MAXQDA 2020 program, and five superordinate themes, 37 themes and 28 sub-themes were obtained. According to the findings, five (5) main themes were obtained for sustainable wine tourism, namely sustainability elements, economic elements, competition elements, and quality elements and wine tourism elements affecting Urla wine tourism. According to the results of the themes obtained, it was concluded that the visitors to Urla Bağ Yolu were most impressed by the place they visited, that being in touch with nature and tasting wine in this environment affected them very much, that some of the visitors found the wine prices reasonable while others found them expensive, that they were very pleased with the information they received during the tour of the business, that the majority of the visitors found the quality of the wines very good and that the food they ate was very delicious. At the same time, as a result of the interviews conducted with the business owners, it was determined that the employees they employ in their businesses are educated and expert in wine, and therefore the quality of the wines they produce is getting better day by day. It was concluded that they make an effort to ensure customer satisfaction in terms of presentation and service. In addition, in the theoretical section, the historical, geographical and institutional structures of Turkey's wine sector are discussed and the development of wine tourism and wine production in the world and its current position are described.