Opportunities of Slovenian Tourism in Creating an Innovative Co-existence Between Dishes and Wines

Abstract

Research Question (RV): The opportunity of Slovenian tourism is, among other things, also in creating an innovative co-existence between dishes and wines. It is worth noting that key employees in the hospitality industry and tourism lack knowledge in one gastronomic area, namely the use of local, fresh and seasonal raw materials, dishes and wines in hotels and restaurants, and the advice and serving of food and wines. It would be necessary that each catering facility has a professionally qualified wine counselor sommelier. In the article, we explore the basic knowledge of typical wines, dishes and the harmony between dishes and wines among catering tourism workers in the Dolenjska and Bela krajina areas and the promotion and marketing of wines.

Aim: The aim of the research was to determine the real level of eno-gastronomic knowledge of catering and tourism workers in the regions of Dolenjska and Bela krajina and to provide comparative analysis and opportunities based on the research conducted by  the Geisenheim High School for Winery in Germany (Tafel et al., 2018).

Method: Based on the study of literature and expertise from the field of eno-gastronomy, anonymous field survey of catering and tourism workers was carried out with closed-type questionnaires, as we estimate that on-the-spot interviewing is a credible basis for obtaining data and presenting results. Frequency statistics (Table 1 and Table 2) and HI square test (Table 3) were used for data processing.

Results: The results of the survey were surprising in the negative sense, as they indicate an insufficient knowledge of the area of ​​coexistence of food and wines shown by key employees in the field of catering and tourism, and therefore call for action.

Organization: We estimate that managers in catering tourism facilities want such research, primarily because of better quality of employee planning, creation of innovative offer, work processes and decision making.

Company: More eno-gastronomic knowledge of key catering and tourist workers contributes to a greater awareness of the guests, and consequently to a healthier, local and seasonal offer of food and wine, which contributes to the well-being of people, the sustainable development of the profession and the opportunities for the development of Slovenian tourism.

Originality: According to the analysis of the research in the field of the coexistence of dishes and wines among catering tourism workers in the Dolenjska and Bela krajina areas, we believe that this research can serve as an example for studying this field of expertise in other Slovenian tourist areas.

Limitations / further research: We estimate that more funds from the field of tourism promotion should be allocated to research in various categories of catering establishments, namely restaurants, hotels, tourist farms, vineyards and other catering facilities with dishes and wines, as the results can show what eno-gastronomic offer should be like, which Slovenia can promote and what needs to be invested in order to obtain quality knowledge of them.