Examining the progress of the Dão wine route wineries’ websites

Resumo

In 2010 Amaro, Barroco and Antunes carried out a study that analysed the use of Information and Communication Technologies as an essential tool for the development of the Dão Wine Route. They examined the presence of the 35 members of the Route on the Internet and the quality of their websites.
The results demonstrated that few members used websites to promote their services, compromising the whole network. Now that almost ten years have passed, it is time to update this analysis and examine what has changed. As a region that wants to position itself as a tourism destination of choice, where Wine Tourism is one of the key offers, it is of paramount importance to examine how the now 46 members of the Route have been using their webpages as a Marketing strategy. A content analysis of these winery's Websites was conducted, and the results were compared with those obtained in 2010. These
show that although some progress has been made, there are still many areas that require improvements. The paper provides practical recommendations, useful not only for the wineries of the Dao Wine Route, but also for other wineries and wine routes.