Alentejo’s E-Wine Tourism: The Dimensions of the Travel Planning Functionalities Conveyed by its Wineries’ Websites

Among the considerable diversity of tourism products usually offered to tourists in rural destinations, wine tourism is one of the most valued and most beneficial to local communities. Starting from the premise that one of the fundamental primary resources of any wine tourism destination is its wineries, the general aim of this study is to make a comparative analysis of a group of wineries located in the Portuguese wine region of Alentejo. In addition to the official website of the Alentejo regional DMO, the empirical study analysed ten websites of wine tourism wineries that include tourist accommodation. The contents and functionalities relevant to tourist demand during the planning process of a wine tourism experience were identified, as well as the inconsistencies between the websites of the selected wineries in terms of their capabilities and the way they communicate with their potential visitors. The empirical analysis concluded that the Alentejo DMO's regional website had only a limited set of basic relational functionalities, which do not allow for the creation and maintenance of relationships between the destination and its current and potential clients. As far as the wineries' websites are concerned, there is a considerable difference between the size of the functionalities of the different wineries' websites, their diversity and, above all, their sophistication, which reveals gaps and inconsistencies in the online presence of one of Portugal's main wine tourism destinations.