The role of social capital and trust in the success of local wine tourism and rural development

Abstract

The development of wine and food tourism can reinforce local economies by attracting visitors and new inhabitants to small and picturesque rural areas. However, not all villages benefit equally from the same wine and food tourism trends. What makes some settlements and territories economically attractive and successful? What accounts for the difference between success stories and areas that are lagging behind, despite similar ‘hard’ factors? This article focuses on the soft elements: the role of community and entrepreneurial values, attitudes, networks, social capital and trust in the economic success of prosperous rural settlements. The article presents three empirical case studies of settlements in different wine regions in Hungary, based on semi‐structured in‐depth interviews. We conclude that the economic success of winemaking settlements is due either to lifestyle entrepreneurs moving in or to the strength of the locally bounded community.

Social capital and trust: The ‘fuel’ of local integration of rural and small-town enterprises

“…There is already an institutional framework for cooperation among successful enterprises in the village, most of which are run by newcomers. The village has become successful and can be regarded as a mature entrepreneurial ecosystem (Tomay & Tuboly, 2023). Two out of ten entrepreneurs we interviewed are natives of the village who run family businesses.…”

“…Barge is a Swabian small town of 3,000 alongside the Danube. While its wine cellars constitute separate enterprises, they nevertheless form an integrated entrepreneurial ecosystem based on local wine tourism (Tomay & Tuboly, 2023). The wine-cellar village held its first official event in 2012, with six wine cellars collaborating in this common project to boost local wine tourism.…”

“…In doing so, they have created a particular form of nascent, local association of entrepreneurs. In contrast with the other two settlements, Barge has an endogenous ecosystem of entrepreneurship that has organically evolved from within (Tomay & Tuboly, 2023). Most winemakers are native to the village and have spent their lives there.…”

“…All three have a longstanding tradition of grape cultivation and wine production. Our case studies are exceptional in this regard since the willingness to cooperate of businesses is of paramount importance for the success of the wine-growing and wine tourism sector; thus, we can expect stronger local embeddedness, cooperation, and collective thinking among them (Mike & Megyesi, 2018;Tomay & Tuboly, 2023). In addition -not independently from the grape-growing traditions -all three settlements have Swabian roots, which mentality and habitus may be one of the drivers of entrepreneurial willingness, as Schwartz (2021) proved: based on family resources, knowledge (bonding social capital) and community solidarity (bridging social capital) may be characteristic of these settlements.…”

‘Values‐based Territorial Food Networks’—Benefits, challenges and controversies

“…For instance, it may be hard to become part of supra‐regional development flows and local food movements. Tomay & Tuboly (2023) compare three Hungarian rural tourism initiatives in the field of gastronomic and wine tourism, exploring the reasons for their success and failure in taking advantage of the booming worldwide rural tourism industry. They argue that soft elements are crucial for understanding the divergent development pathways that lead to similar economic outcomes in the field of tourism.…”