The Wine and Tourism Chair at EM Strasbourg and Alsace Destination Tourisme are developing a joint action program for 2023–2026. This partnership is part of a process of mutual progress designed to support the development of tourism in Alsace.
The partnership was formalized on September 21 with the signatures of Nathalie Kaltenbach, President of Alsace Destination Tourisme, and Babak Mehmanpazir, Dean of EM Strasbourg, who were joined by Marc Lévy, Managing Director of Alsace Destination Tourisme, and Coralie Haller, Head of the Wine and Tourism Chair at EM Strasbourg. This milestone marks a significant step forward for Alsace by combining the expertise of the two organizations to support the skills development of tourism actors. The aim of this collaboration is to encourage innovation and facilitate initiatives and experimentation in Alsace.
For the President of Alsace Destination Tourisme, “This partnership, which is at the heart of the theme of savoring the gastronomy and vintages of Alsace, seals an already fruitful and intense collaboration with the young talent of EM Strasbourg and all the players in the interprofessional sector promoting wine and beer tourism.”
As for the Dean of EM Strasbourg Business School, “One of our school's ambitions is to strengthen its links with the region. What could be more natural than to join forces with Alsace Destination Tourisme through this partnership, which will enable us to co-construct a common strategy promoting the attractiveness of Alsace and developing a sustainable region. In this sense, the Wine and Tourism Chair at EM Strasbourg is an inspiring model of co-development through knowledge creation for the benefit of an entire ecosystem.”
A joint strategy to promote wine tourism
As a first step, the partnership will roll out a shared strategy to promote wine tourism in Alsace, based on a program of actions involving the industry's partners. This program could then be extended to beer tourism and gastronomy, as well as to all six sectors of excellence in the Tourism Innovation and Development Strategy supported by ADT.
A multi-step action program
The aim of this program is to develop a range of training and information tools dedicated to Alsace's wine tourism actors, some of which will be reserved for service providers engaged in the Vignobles & Découvertes quality label.
In collaboration with wine and tourism players, we plan to
- create a series of conferences for industry professionals, featuring biannual talks by experts on innovative topics or best practices related to the theme;
- build a program of continuing education courses certified by EM Strasbourg/ADT or RNCP/CPF to help tourism professionals upgrade their skills;
- create a resource center (scientific publications, secondary studies, articles for the general public) and distribute teaching material;
- produce a white paper on wine tourism in Alsace and participate in the development of a wine tourism strategy in Alsace;
- involve students in projects supporting the industry, as part of courses or co-op assignments.
The Wine and Tourism Chair at EM Strasbourg
Created in 2017 and led by Coralie Haller, an associate professor at EM Strasbourg, the Wine and Tourism Chair is an innovative partnership arrangement that fosters cooperation between players in the wine, tourism, and wine tourism industries and EM Strasbourg. Today, it is the only chair in France to coordinate actions on these themes. It offers a pool of young talent and proposes new trends and strategies through research and the dissemination of best practices through public conferences and research workshops. Based on a cluster approach, companies, local authorities, and research and training organizations work together to co-construct and bring forth new ideas.