Wine Tourism on Rural Areas Polish Conditions after the Transformation

The socio-economic transformations after 1989 have brought huge changes in the administration of personal properties and made it possible to manage the private property. Centrally planned economy has been replaced by the market economy, in which single farm households became the subjects of the market. It opened a new way to realize modern ideas and plans, especially on rural areas. As a result, rural households from being solely the attribute of the national agriculture sector, have now become prominent players in the services sector, particularly in the hospitality -tourism industry. One of the means to diversify profile of rural households is to transform an agriculture household into an agro-tourism household. Nowadays, rural communities face new, market-oriented requirements, which make them respond by joining the tradition and modernity. Rural areas are not only obliged to produce and supply food for the cities. Their image is now created by a tourism product, which includes: natural environment, natural and cultural landscape and local culture. Over the last years wine tourism has become more and more popular, even in those countries, which were not traditionally considered wine countries. In Poland wine tourism is a new and dynamic phenomenon copying successfully the resolution from the West. Setting up particularly oriented agro-tourism farms (e. g. wine agro-tourism farms) can be a means to transform and modernize the rural households and, equally, a great opportunity for the owners to improve their financial situation and status of life.