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With increasing wine consumption in Armenia, both residents and inbound tourists have become attractive target groups for wine sales, which are stimulated by wine tourism activities. The objective of this explorative study is to shed light on the potential of wine tourism for rural development in Armenia.

The paper starts with a structured and interdisciplinary literature review. Based on qualitative surveys among local tour operators and wine producers, and complemented by three expert interviews, the offer of wine tourism activities in Armenia will then be analyzed.

Each of the surveyed wine producers offers wine tourism activities. Foreign tourists know little about the Armenian wine industry, however, and are interested in cultural experiences and Armenia’s breathtaking nature. Armenian wine producers need to understand the expectations of their target groups to develop or adapt their offers successfully.

Due to the explorative nature of this study, the sample size of the surveyed wineries and tour operators is small and hence not representative. In addition, only local tour operators were surveyed. The sample should be extended to include foreign tour operators and more wineries in future research projects.

Whereas first studies on the structure and competitiveness of the Armenian wine sector exist, there is no survey on the general wine tourism in Armenia and its potential to foster rural development.

Due to high competition in the agricultural industries and heterogeneous products, the setting of prices for direct sales to consumers is difficult. In recent years, pay-what-you-want (PWYW) is discussed as an innovative pricing strategy. This study analyses whether the implementation of a pay-what-you-want strategy can be successful and if there is a willingness to pay from the consumers for wine touristic offers. Furthermore, the study analyses, in general, how suitable experiments are as a research tool.

A PWYW mechanism creates a situation of strategic decision- making that can be modelled as a game. This can be transferred to an experimental setting. The results were analysed with a two-sided MWU test (Stata, ranksum) in order to determine whether the differences are statistically significant.

Participants pay positive prices, although theory predicts the opposite. PWYW is a good strategy to analyse the willingness-to-pay for heterogeneous and homogenous services or products. Information or reference prices have no clear influence on the willingness to pay, confirming results of other studies. There is no influence of gender and age on the payments.

In general, consumers have a willingness to pay positive prices for wine- touristic offers. The willingness to pay is not different for people with or without wine knowledge. For the chosen variable information and reference price, wine producers do not have to address target groups differently.

It is the first study which analyses the pay-what-you-want mechanism as a tool for wine touristic activities. In addition, an experimental approach was used to analyse an innovative, consumer-based price-setting strategy.

Regarding the global development of the wine industry, China has gained a notable share in terms of wine consumption, and its domestic wine production has increased steadily since 2000. The wine production process requires close coordination between growers and processors to avoid disruption and instability in the supply chain of the wine grapes. However, vertical coordination in the Chinese wine regions has received little attention. Based on the existing theoretical background on vertical coordination, this study aims to detect the evolution processes of vertical coordination in the Chinese grape market.

Exploratory qualitative research fits with the aim of this study. From December 2018 to January 2019, interviews with grape growers and wine processors of various Chinese wine-producing areas took place. After transcribing all recorded files into text, a qualitative data analysis following the approach of Mayring (2015) was used to analyse and interpret the data.

The models of vertical coordination in the grape supply in China vary between the producer's requirements on grape quality/quantity and the arrangements of grape supply chains, which are diverse depending on regional strategies of the local government.

However, in this research, the authors did not get into details on the organization of the contractual coordination, and due to the limited access to grape growers, the relationship between farmers and processors cannot be analysed in detail. With a better understanding of the coordination relationship and enhanced contract enforcement, the vineyard management and grape supply chain management can be better performed, inducing a steady industrial development.

Regarding the global development of the wine industry, China has gained a notable share in terms of wine consumption, and its domestic wine production has increased steadily since 2000. However, vertical coordination in the Chinese wine regions has received little attention. The study provides a first insight into the grape market structures, as very little is known.