cultural landscape, a rural development factor in rioja
TRANSCRIPT
Cultural landscape, a rural development
factor in Rioja
Julio Grande
Living cultural landscapes and the challenge of tourism 6th Seminar of the UNESCO CHAIR and the UNITWIN-UNESCO Network in “CULTURE, TOURISM, DEVELOPMENT”
It occupies a surface area of 58,927 hectares, with a buffer zone: 124,374 Hectares
The Denominación de Origen Calificada Rioja occupies an area of 63,000,000 hectares. It is located in the northern third of the Iberian Peninsula with one part in the region of La Rioja (68% surface area), part in the Basque Country (21%) and part in Navarre (11%).
Autonomous Communities
Proposed area
The implementation of the world heritage nomination of the La Rioja and Rioja Alavesa Wine and Vineyard Cultural Landscape marked a turning point in ¡the appreciation of vineyard landscapes in our region.
This turning point marks a new era in the attitudes of both the local population and the stakeholder agencies when dealing with land planning, local development and protection policies.
RURAL AREAS IN CRISIS: They are still losing population
Underemploy
ment Youth exodus
Population
decline and
ageing
Lack of motivation,
apathy
Low professional
qualifications
Lack of leadership Political
neglect
Lack of interest in
community life
Loss of the sense of
belonging. Loss of
identity,
Bad resource
management
Giving up
(Vachon, 2001)
THE MAIN VALUE OF THE DECLARATION FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT
It serves as an element of territorial revitalisation from a viewpoint of recovering identity and collective tasks.
It is obvious to the local population, who identifies it and shares it. It is a synthesis between their past and their present.
It is necessarily linked to it.
It maintains an emotional connection with it.
It is a fundamental part of their quality of life
THE MAIN VALUE OF THE DECLARATION FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT
The Declaration is a reason for cooperation.
It can only be maintained through collective effort.
It links the territory with the residents, but also to the entire rural population which has emigrated.
It stimulates an emotional feeling in both local population and population with ties.
FROM A RURAL DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVE, THIS IS THE MAIN CONTRIBUTION OF THE NOMINATION:
Bringing together wills and efforts around this common task to recover an intimate and real identity based on territorial reality.
This goes far beyond a simple consensus on the preparation of the nomination
A second value CREATING ADDED VALUE
The social effort of maintaining the landscape must have an answer in the rating and recognition of local products, particularly wine.
This effort is not just an aesthetic issue, but a philosophy for doing things, caring for vineyards and making wines, which produces a differential value.
TOURISM
Wine tourism took off in our territory at the start of the century.
The starting point of wine tourism is winery tours, which generate greater appeal.
Little by little the public starts demanding more experiences.
This is when the landscape acquires value as a tourist product.
TOURISM
A coincidence in time takes place:
• Local population’s rating of its own landscape
• Tourists’ rating of the landscape.
They are two realities which influence each other.
The landscape is a HORIZONTAL resource
• It is always present in the eyes of tourists. Wherever you look, there is the landscape: in the wineries, in the fields, in historical urban ensembles, in the people. It fills every nook and cranny, like mortar, bonding together each and every element that comprises it.
• It is not just a visual experience, is an ‘ambience’. Our cultural landscape creates an ‘ambience’ which is entirely experiential. It goes beyond a photograph, an image or a taste.
• It is authentic. We do not need to recreate anything. It exists like that, ‘per se’.
• It is free. Tourists do not pay directly for its enjoyment. They just come and enjoy it.
TWO INTERESTING ASPECTS
A demand for a cultural experience on the world of wine going beyond a mere winery tour or a wine tasting.
A resource which is easy to access physically and, to a large extent, intellectually.
Some details from our TOURISTS
• 70% are repeaters
• 60% visit wineries but most only one.
• The order in which resources were rated is: food, winery, landscape, old towns, monuments visited and viewpoints.
• When asked what they had liked the most The answers were: atmosphere, food, landscape, wine and wine culture.
Some details from our TOURISTS Rating the landscape through a photographic survey.
• Coincidences between the rating of the local population and visitors.
• Colour factor highly rated.
• Presence of old towns in the landscape highly rated.
• Variety of planes and slopes highly rated.
Activities we have carried out:
• Expanding the network of viewpoints
• Developing a network of marked wine footpaths
• Carrying out an inventory and preservation, restoration and/or enhancement of heritage assets, both in historical ensembles and in sites scattered across the territory
• Dissemination of resources among the local population
• Changes in communication strategy
What was the main influence of the Nomination from a rural development perspective?
• Social mobilisation
• Strengthening territorial identity
• Making us think
• Contemplate new land management models
• And we hope that more tourists
