Sea of Wine. Information and Communication Technology Platform
The new issue of WTA Guide. Ukraine contains an announcement of the launch of a unique ICT platform with a mobile application developed by the Ukrainian team within the framework of the Sea of Wine project, a partner of the WTA Guide. The project will present the wine routes of the Black Sea Basin of all participating countries – Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine and Greece.
The international project Sea of Wine is implemented by the team of the Odesa National University of Technology (ONUT) together with such leading partners as the International Center for Agribusiness Research and Education of Armenia (ICARE), the Fund “Georgian Center for Agribusiness Development” (Georgia) and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece).
As you know, the Black Sea region is the cradle of world winemaking. Perhaps it is incredibly significant that the countries from these territories decided not to compete for high-profile status, but rather to develop a joint brand of wine tourism. The goal of The Sea of Wine project is to help wine and tourism companies, hotels and restaurants in these four countries develop joint modern approaches to promoting products and services. The platform of the seaofwine.travel project will soon be operational, where wine routes of Ukraine, Greece, Georgia, Armenia, as well as a joint route between partner countries – the Black Sea Wine Route – will be featured. So, you can choose a direction and plan your trip right from home. After downloading the app, enogastronomy tourists will always have all the wine routes at hand – choose and travel!
ICT platform (Information and Communication Technology) is a very important product for communication. Today, an advanced tourist chooses exactly such platforms that have built-in cross-posting with a transition to social networks and other modern options (by the way, the Sea of Wine project already has pages on Instagram and Facebook). This is an interactive platform which provides a system for evaluating routes and wineries where you can leave your feedback. And such feedback, we note, is costless, but it gives invaluable marketing experience to every participating winery. In addition to English, the site and mobile application will be available in local languages: Ukrainian, Armenian, Greek and Georgian.
The mobile application for gadgets can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play. It is simple and convenient to use. It presents online routes created by specialists. The platform is more developed because it is connected to Google Maps. Besides, a system of filters and hashtags based on interests is in operation. The visitor will be able to independently shape their trip by choosing what interests them.
The website is designed according to the latest modern trends in web design, so that it is interesting, useful, and understandable from the point of view of user experience. All participating countries are presented on the home page. Here the visitor can choose the one they are interested in and go to its page. General information about winemaking in the region, wine routes is provided further. You can go to the pages of wineries or use hashtags and filters to find out what is nearby, for example cultural sights, architecture, hotels and restaurants, festivals, etc. There is also information on the language in which the excursion can be conducted, and methods of paying for services. Having created your own route, you can use a modern service to save its description, map, locations in PDF, thus creating your own offline guidebook. In addition, the site presents travel agencies and tour operators through which you can book a trip.
On the page of Ukraine, the developers paid a lot of attention to grape varieties, including the local Odesa Black, Sukholimansky, and European varieties, which are perfectly cultivated in the Ukrainian Black Sea region. Therefore, the platform carries out educational work in a broader sense, so that a guest, even before visiting a winery, is informed about the peculiarities of local wines, etc. This is important information also for specialists from other countries because, unfortunately, too little is known about Ukrainian winemaking in the world. For the same purpose, a section of a blog with interesting studies and trainings was created.
The Sea of Wine ICT platform and mobile application are convenient, innovative tools that provide enotourists around the world with the necessary information about routes, countries and their offers. It is a tool that expands horizons.