Germanier, R.; Moricciani, N. Perceiving and Adapting to Climate Change: Perspectives of Tuscan Wine-Producing Agritourism Owners. Sustainability2023, 15, 2100.
Germanier, R.; Moricciani, N. Perceiving and Adapting to Climate Change: Perspectives of Tuscan Wine-Producing Agritourism Owners. Sustainability 2023, 15, 2100.
Germanier, R.; Moricciani, N. Perceiving and Adapting to Climate Change: Perspectives of Tuscan Wine-Producing Agritourism Owners. Sustainability2023, 15, 2100.
Germanier, R.; Moricciani, N. Perceiving and Adapting to Climate Change: Perspectives of Tuscan Wine-Producing Agritourism Owners. Sustainability 2023, 15, 2100.
Abstract
It is now widely accepted the climate change is having a profound impact on the weather systems around the world. These, in turn, have a considerable effect on two important elements of the Tuscan economy: wine producing and tourism. This case study sought to explore the relationship between the perception of Tuscan wine-producing agritourism owners of the potentially abstract notion of climate change and their concrete experiences as entrepreneurs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight wine-producing agritourism owners or managers in Val d’Orcia, a small area of Siena, Tuscany and analyzed thematically. The impact of climate change on the area’s viticulture is undeniable but the responses to the challenges are more nuanced. Political leadership on the climate crisis appears absent and perhaps as a consequence, these small-scale operators lack knowledge and funds to enable them to plan ahead: they react often day-to-day to the immediate weather conditions rather than planning long term. While recognizing the difficulties they face from climate change as viticulturists, as agrotourism owners they welcome the longer seasons which enable them to open in the formally barren shoulder seasons but struggle with last-minute cancellations due to unpredictable weather in the area.
Keywords
Tuscany; Val d’Orcia; climate change; viticulture; viniculture; agritourism
Subject
Business, Economics and Management, Business and Management
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
