Wine-Focused Fulbright Amid Pandemic Presents Challenges, Opportunities for Byron Marlowe
By Maegan Murray
*Please note this story was developed before the unexpected loss of our dear colleague Professor Byron Marlowe on December 28. WSU Tri-Cities plans to establish an endowed scholarship in his honor. In the meantime, if you would like to send a note to his family, please reach out to Brenda Alling, interim director of marketing and communication, at brenda_alling@wsu.edu, and she will coordinate.
The COVID-19 pandemic not only put a damper on tourism in the United States. It also posed challenges for those planning to study and teach about tourism and cultural experiences overseas as part of the Fulbright program.
Byron Marlowe, Don Smith Distinguished Professor and director of the WSU Tri-Cities wine and beverage business management program, was initially scheduled to go to Krems, Austria, for a Fulbright experience to study and teach courses pertaining to wine tasting room experiences in March 2021.
But with increased restrictions and limitations for visiting restaurants and wineries, plans changed.
Instead of the smaller community of Krems, where his partnering institution of the IMC University of Applied Sciences was located, the Fulbright program elected to have him study and teach virtually from the more populated city of Vienna.
The wineries at the time were mostly closed to the public. As Marlowe’s research primarily focused on comparing wine tasting rooms and best practices of Austria’s Wachau region to those of the Walla Walla region in Washington state, this posed significant challenges.
“Living in a world-class city without tourists is very interesting,” Marlowe says. “I was one of the few internationals in the area, especially in late February and March. I had a fairly local experience in a sense; however, there was no opportunity to go into restaurants, world-class museums, and the like. I could still picture what it was like in the summertime during the typical peak tourist season. It was romantic in a sense, but also kind of depressing.”
Marlowe pivots research focus to digital wine marketing practices
As most wineries and other cultural experiences were closed or at minimal capacity, Marlowe got creative in his analysis of wineries in the region and focused on how wineries pivoted to attract customers through digital marketing.
“I changed my project to analyze wineries’ websites and their offerings in the Wachau and Walla Walla regions,” he says. “I examined their websites and categorized content into 20 different buckets, including food, tastings, weddings, and tours, among others.”
Analyzing the shift in wine marketing amid the pandemic
Marlowe drew comparisons between the two areas to see what, if anything, had changed. Walla Walla, for example, transitioned to rely heavily on a portal application to help to market the Walla Walla wine region as a whole and promote direct sales.
“That regional portal was much more of a user-friendly, one-stop shop,” he says. “When people were thinking about planning a trip to Walla Walla, they could choose from so many different wineries and amenities. It provided an equal playing field and helped elevate smaller wineries that otherwise could have been decimated amid the pandemic.”
He says in contrast, many winery websites in the Wachau region did not transition to a direct sales marketing approach during the pandemic. He found Wachau winery websites described the sensory experiences of the wine, culture, and region.
“Wachau is very much rooted in a local audience,” he says. “I didn’t get the feeling the websites were for trip or itinerary planning. They were set up for traditional tastings. You wouldn’t go to the website to make a reservation, but instead could learn about the quality of wine served. You would then work with a tour operator and visit the wine region.”
Comparing the two regions presented some interesting opportunities to evaluate what works well in particular regions, and also what can be added or expanded upon in each region, Marlowe says.
He suggests the Walla Walla region could cater more toward its terroir tourism—promoting the value of visiting a destination based on wine produced from a particular climate, geographic area, soil type, and sense of place that leads to exceptional wines. It is what European wine regions do really well, he says.
Wineries in smaller European wine regions, such as the Wachau area, could really boost sales by catering to clientele just outside of the area, using their websites to ramp-up tourism that generates leads for regional visits. It is what Walla Walla, by comparison, does really well, he says.
Austria begins to open for in-person experiences
Austria started to open up a bit more toward the last few months of Marlowe’s trip. The limited tourism available presented some ideal conditions to explore the cultural side of the winery industry, he says.
Marlowe traveled to Salzburg—the birthplace of Mozart, as well as the Styria region featuring a wine grape that is a hybrid of a traditional native grape imported from the United States. He also toured a region featuring an unusual variety of red wine grapes for red wine production.
Teaching-wise, Marlowe hosted live lectures for regional students. He presented his background in terroir tourism and illustrated the difference of wine education in the United States versus in Austria.
Sharing experiences locally and abroad
Marlowe will continue to use what he gained as part of his Fulbright experience in his hospitality and wine and beverage business management courses at WSU Tri-Cities. He also hopes to expand opportunities for Austrian students to visit the Washington wine region as part of educational and cultural exchanges.
“It’s certainly an interesting time, both good and bad, for tourism and especially the wine industry,” he says. “The lessons we have learned will be explored and studied for years to come.”