Sustainable wine tourism and vineyards’ environmental consciousness in Thailand.

This study aimed to assess sustainable grape wine tourism industry practices and explore the environmental consciousness of the stakeholders in Thailand. As a newcomer to the wine industry and the wine tourism industry, Thailand is presently constrained to only a few working vineyards that generate grape wine for wine tourism and exportation, predominantly from Central Thailand. Hence, there has been very little research conducted in the area and there is insufficient knowledge of the environmental management of wine vineyard tourism in Thailand. A qualitative study was employed, using semi-structured face-to-face interviews with six of the nine Thai vineyard owners or managers, as well field observations by the researchers. This study identified several factors such as cost, lack of government support, lack of awareness by the vineyard owners and managers on the benefits of sustainable wine practices, as some of the variables that make it difficult for grape vineyards to practice sustainable wine tourism. These vital key issues can be addressed by the government and industrial stakeholders through innovative ideas and cooperation. In addition, government assistance can support the implementation of sustainable business practice and provide backing with the willingness for adoption of sustainable business practices in the wine tourism industry by offering various attractive subsidies including tax incentives to encourage the adoption of sustainable practices in the wine tourism industry in Thailand. This paper contributes to the limited research in Thailand and its findings provide useful information that can be used by the policy makers in addressing the economic and environmental concerns of stakeholders in the wine tourism industry of Thailand.