ROTAS TURÍSTICAS EM REGIÕES VINÍCOLAS: ENOTURISMO NA CAMPANHA DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL – BRASIL

Enotourism has emerged as a profitable agroindustrial field, responsible for putting forward the regional development, mainly economic, of regions that produce wine. Given the growth and development of such activity, new touristic destinations are arisen, so that new economic means emerge in order to attract appreciators, whether wine customers, or not. It entails the preservation, and even the rescue, of the cultural winery heritage. Several researches on enotourism suggest benefits of this activity to the wine industry, as well as to the involved rural places. Under such perspective, this research has as aim to analyze the enotourism while economic activity, and how much it contributes to the development of wineries placed at the Campanha Region in Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. The unities of analysis are placed at South-weast of Rio Grande do Sul, embracing almost all the border between Brazil and Uruguay, and part of the border between Brazil and Argentina. It comprises an area with 19 municipalities of Rio Grande do Sul. To perform this investigation, a qualitative approach was selected, with the employment of a structured case study, embedding contente analysis from structured interviews. Results show that enotourism has an upsweep in all studied firms, acting as a competitive tool for the local wineries, and given contribution to the strenghteningof the brands and products selling.