Enhancing Tourism through Viticulture Enterprises in Douro Region: The Inov@Douro Model

Carlos Filipe Campos Rompante da Cunha1,3, Emanuel Soares Peres Correia2,3, Raul Manuel Pereira Morais dos Santos2,3, and Manuel José Cabral dos Santos Reis2

1Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, 5301-854 Bragança, Portugal

2University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, 5001-801 Vila Real, Portugal

3CITAB — Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro-Environment and Biological Sciences, 5001-801 Vila Real, Portugal

Copyright © 2010 Carlos Filipe Campos Rompante da Cunha, Emanuel Soares Peres Correia, Raul Manuel Pereira Morais dos Santos, and Manuel José Cabral dos Santos Reis. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License unported 3.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that original work is properly cited.

Abstract

This paper describes a business and technological model proposal, known as Inov@Douro, intended to support and to promote competitive and sustained precision agriculture practices in the Portuguese Douro Region. Our approach is based on a distributed cooperative network, tailored to meet the specific needs of viticulture enterprises which also explore tourism as a valuable national and international business source. We present the Inov@Douro model from the knowledge generation point-of-view, intended to support the multidisciplinary concept of a cooperation approach among regional partners. This model aims to represent a new working style for this unique region. As a guideline to attain the implementation of such a model, information technology and infrastructures tools are discussed in order to promote precision agriculture practices while giving valuable and dynamic tourist information to the general public.

Keywords: Cooperative networks, Model, Precision viticulture, Tourism
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