Submitted by: Dr. Ian Stuart
The results are in! An empirical research project recently conducted by Dr. Ian Stuart examined wineries in BC, Ontario, Washington, Oregon and California that had combined lodging facilities with their winery operations. The results indicate that such a combination is highly successful (despite theoretical predictions to the contrary) and rapidly growing in popularity. The field studies exposed several success factors which can be easily and inexpensively reproduced but also highlighted ones, such as government regulations, that impede firms from achieving this success. When full integration between the winery and the lodging is achieved, the benefits to small and medium sized firms is enormous with implications for wine tourism here and abroad.