THE GERMAN WINE ROUTE AS ONE OF THE MAIN REGIONS OF WINE PRODUCTION IN GERMANY AND ITS IMPORTANCE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM

Weinstrabe is a region within the Palatinate in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate that was named after the German Wine Route or Deutsche Weinstrabe. Weinstrabe is the largest part of the Palatine wine region. The main sources of income are wine growing and tourism. The aim of this paper is to present the German Wine Route as the important tourist region in Germany and to show its importance of the development of tourism in this region. As research methods, analysis of informative materials from the Federal Statistical Office of Germany and bibliographic resources on the topic was conducted. In addition, a special questionnaire was prepared and applied by the author. Research was conducted in the summer of 2017 among 324 adult tourists, including 158 women and 166 men staying in the region of the German Wine Route. The results show that tourism in this region has developed rapidly in recent years. Furthermore, my own research results show that the majority of examined tourists are enthusiasts of wine tourism. They are also active in other tourist and leisure activities.