Wine tasting: To charge or not to charge?

In Australia there is an inconsistency of practice between cellar door operators as to whether they charge for a wine tasting or not. The liquor licensing legislation in each State permits cellar door operators to charge for a wine tasting. Some charge for tastings but deduct this from any purchase made, some provide food to accompany the tasting and others provide a free tasting. This paper considers the practice from a consumer’s (wine tourist’s) viewpoint. A survey was conducted of wine tourists who have attended a cellar door wine tasting to gauge their attitude about charges for wine tastings and probable impacts on their purchasing decisions. The majority expressed a preference for free tastings and stated they would not stay if there was a charge for tastings. However, some tourists were willing to pay in a range of circumstances, depending on the services provided and overall experience.     

Experiential Marketing and Long-Term Sales

This study investigates the ability of winery tasting rooms to create brand awareness and build long-term brand loyalty. Specifically, we test the conjecture that if tasting rooms create brand awareness and a pleasurable tasting room experience, then those visitors are more likely to recognize and seek out those brands once they leave the tasting room. To measure these effects, we exploit differences in tasting room characteristics to conduct a series of natural experiments from which we analyze differences in off-premise retail sales away from the tasting room. We use scan data on wine sold off-premise through traditional retail outlets to then test for differences among tasting room characteristics. Our results indicate that tasting rooms act as a form of experiential marketing for wineries, creating brand awareness and generating greater growth in off-premise retail sales. Finally, we address issues of endogeneity and unobserved heterogeneity as potential sources of bias.     

Sensation seeking and the prediction of attitudes and behaviours of wine tourists

Although socio-economic variables are commonly used for market segmentation and are widely applied in describing winery visitors, increasing awareness is evident in the literature that personality might also be useful for that purpose. The present study examined whether, compared with socio-economic variables (age, gender, education level, personal income, and household income), the personality variable sensation seeking adds to the ability to predict differences in various attitudes and behaviours of wine tourists. With the effects of the former controlled, sensation seeking was observed to be significantly related to spending on wine, and wine drinking, as well as to the frequency of visits to wineries and the number of activities engaged in at wineries, the use of the internet as a source of information about wineries, venturing off the beaten track during a visit to a wine region, and the strength of opportunity for learning, stimulation, or indulgence as incentives to visit a wine region. Sensation seeking was also observed to be significantly related to all but one of those variables when the effects of another variable which is receiving increasing attention as a means by which to characterize wine tourists, “involvement”, were controlled. The practical significance of the results for winery and wine region marketing and management is discussed, and several requirements for further research are identified.     

Differences in Tourism Marketing Strategies Between Wineries Based on Size or Location

While the number of United States wineries has doubled and wine production tripled, only three states represent the majority of wineries and wine production. Yet, small wineries must contend with similar production issues that larger wineries face: cultivation of grapes, fermentation of juice, and finally bottling of the product.By comparison small wineries face an even tougher challenge—attracting consumers' attention to their products, much of which must be sold directly to consumers at the winery. These cellar door sales account for substantial dollar and case volume and are particularly lucrative.This study examined the relationship in off‐site and on‐site marketing strategies based upon winery size and location. The results indicated differences in tourism marketing strategies particularly with wine education at rural wineries and food/wine pairing techniques at larger wineries.     

Lifestyle Market Segmentation,Small Business Entrepreneurs,and the New Zealand Wine Tourism Industry

ABSTRACT

Wine tourism is an important niche activity for which participant needs and motivations have been somewhat under-researched. This paper describes a case study investigation to evaluate the nature of buyer/seller relationships that evolve in a wine tourism setting. Visitors to three small New Zealand wineries were interviewed to gather data relating to their lifestyle behaviors and their attitudes towards the wine tourism experience, and factor analysis used to categorize these visitors in terms of the List of Values typology of lifestyle characteristics. Results indicate that the 'achiever' and 'funlover' segments are well represented amongst winery visitors, but that there is an appreciably lower incidence of 'belonger' personalities. Implications of these findings for the wine tourism industry are considered.     

PROFILE OF A WINE TOURIST AND THE CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN DESTINATION AND PREFERRED WINE: A STUDY IN ARAGON,SPAIN

Most of the existing characteristics of wine tourists have been based on the point of view of wineries or have been based on the tourists who have visited wineries. It is therefore necessary to establish a more general profile of wine tourists. In conjunction with this, a more in‐depth look must be taken at the motivations for visiting a destination. These motivations can include the production area of a preferred wine. The correspondence between the production area of a preferred wine and the destination selected by a tourist has been taken as a given in the research performed to date, but it has not been studied in depth. The results obtained show that the profile of a wine tourist can be divided into two groups, thereby considering the variables of gender, income, age, belonging to a wine club, wine consumption habits, and involvement in activities related to wine. Moreover, in the analyzed case there is positive correspondence between the place of origin of a preferred wine and the destination selected when participating in wine tourism.     

The Effect of Length of Stay on Travelers' Perceived Satisfaction with Service Quality

SUMMARY

Consumer satisfaction related to service quality during the vacation experience is of paramount importance to the travel and tourism industry. This study tests empirically the effects the number of nights spent on a vacation have on the levels of satisfaction recent travelers report for three service aspects of the travel destination: perceived satisfaction with tourism service providers; perceived “freedom from defects” of tourism services; and perceived reasonableness of the cost of tourism services. Differentiation in satisfaction scores between “short-term visitors” (i.e., those who stayed from one to six nights) and “long-term visitors” (i.e., those who stayed seven or more nights) were examined. Significant differences between the two groups of visitors were present for (1) perceived satisfaction with industry professionals delivering the service experience at the travel destination, (2) perceived satisfaction with “freedom from defects” of the actual services at the destination, and (3) perceived reasonableness of the cost of services at the travel destination. Suggestions for how tourism industry professionals can make use of this information are presented.     

Integrating the Kano model and IPA to measure quality of museum interpretation service: a comparison of visitors from Taiwan and Mainland China

This study attempts to integrate the Kano model and importance-performance analysis to explore critical interpretation service elements. This study compares the experiences of Mainland China and Taiwan visitors at a museum and their perceptions of interpretation service quality. The critical elements perceived by Mainland China visitors are “There is easy access to interpretation facilities” and “Interpreters provide services when visitors need them.” The critical elements identified for visitors from Taiwan are “There is easy access to interpretation facilities,” “Interpreters offer services at the right time,” and “What interpreters say is interesting and motivates visitors to learn more.”     

A latent growth model of destination image's halo effect

By disentangling the static and dynamic components of a latent growth model, this study demonstrates how tourists' mere presence may influence the evaluation of the destination's products because of the halo effect of their perceived destination image. The results show that destination image positively influenced product evaluations. However, while visitors had more favourable initial product evaluations and purchase intentions, these enhanced evaluations decayed over time once the visitors returned home. Further, the effects were less pronounced for high-involvement visitors, who were more knowledgeable about the product. These findings imply that cross-sectional studies may yield an incomplete picture regarding the effects of destination image. This study also demonstrated how to apply latent growth modelling to longitudinal tourism research.     

Virtual wine tours and wine tasting: The influence of offline and online embodiment integration on wine purchase decisions

Applying the theory of embodied cognition as the research framework, the purpose of the current study was to explore the influence of virtual wine tours on young consumers' wine sensory experience and purchasing behaviors. A lab tasting experiment was conducted to compare the influence of a VR video with that of a traditional video featuring a vineyard and winery tour. Results indicated that the VR wine tour video evoked higher intentions to purchase and willingness to pay than the traditional video. Consumers with higher levels of wine knowledge appreciated the video presence and the tastes/aromas of the wine more than consumers with lower levels of wine knowledge. Combined with the taste/finish of the wine, video presence mediated the relationships between video types and consumers' purchase behaviors, revealing that the integration of offline and online embodiments makes a difference in consumers’ purchasing decisions. Recommendations were then provided based on these results.     

Residents' perceptions of wine tourism development

Wine trails have been studied insufficiently within the tourism literature despite of their recent rapid development worldwide. In response, this study examines residents' perceptions of wine tourism development in terms of personal benefits and community impacts. It also explores whether residents' socio-demographics and levels of wine enthusiasm, and wine trails' tourism characterization influence residents' perceptions. Following a stratified random sampling procedure, residents living along two wine trails in the Piedmont region of North Carolina (U.S.) were surveyed. Results indicate that residents are neutral in their perceptions of the Piedmont wineries in terms of both personal benefits and community impacts. Residents' socio-demographics and level of wine enthusiasm, as well as the comprehensiveness of wine trails' tourism amenities were significantly associated with residents' perceptions. Results also indicate that personal benefits mediate residents' perceptions of community impacts. In addition to the oretical and methodological contributions, this paper outlines management implications for wine trails.     

Festival quality,self-connection,and bragging

Festivals provide opportunities for experiential consumption, attracting both first-time and repeat visitors. However, current understanding of the perceptual and behavioural differences between these groups remains incomplete. This study investigates how experiential purchase quality influences experience self-connection and braggart word-of-mouth, for both first-time and repeat visitors, using a mixed-method approach. The qualitative (n = 32) and quantitative (n = 909) results together reveal that the combinations of experiential purchase quality dimensions stimulating experience self-connection and braggart word-of-mouth in repeat visitors differ significantly from those for first-time visitors, emphasising the need for festival managers to pay close attention to how different visitor groups perceive and prioritise experiential purchase quality dimensions. The findings thus extend current understanding of how braggart word-of-mouth emerges in an experiential consumption context.     

Wine tourism: Motivating visitors through core and supplementary services

Wine tourism is a relatively fledgling industry sector facing a number of important economic development issues. One such issue is the industry's ability to foster a sustainable revenue base for small and medium wineries. Winery visitation is a significant concern and in this paper is defined as the visitor's intention to pay a first or return visit to a winery. The purpose of this exploratory study is to compare specific factors that may influence wine tourists' intentions to visit or revisit a winery or wine region in North Carolina. A theoretical model of core and supplementary services is examined to see which of a number of factors are most influential in decisions to visit a winery and to determine the role of winescape and tourism services in promoting wine tourism. The importance of customer service was found to be the primary predictor of intentions for repeat visitation.     

Predictors of Social Equity and Price Acceptability Judgments of User Fees

Abstract

This study investigated decision-making process and outcome variables that predict perceived social equity judgments and price acceptability of user fees for visitors to a national forest. Data were collected in onsite interviews of 228 visitors to a USDA Forest Service campground. Hypothetical conditions involving combinations of six procedural and distributive justice factors related to fee policies were created through 12 written scenarios. Five of the six variables were significant predictors in each of the two analyses. The most prominent predictor of social equity was public input. For price acceptability, the most prominent predictor was fee level.     

Wine Tourists’ Destination Region Brand Image Perception and Antecedents: Conceptualization of a Winescape Framework

This study conceptualizes the winescape framework using a wine region's image as perceived by wine tourists, in the process integrating grounded theory, namely servicescape, destination choice, and place-based marketing theories. Using an a priori approach, it identifies the winescape construct in a framework of eight dimensions within the wine tourism environment in a study with 996 respondents in a well-known Canadian wine region. The most important dimension of the winescape is the region's natural beauty/setting (landscape). Other high impact characteristics are the service staff and friendly local people, overall ambience and the diversity of wine estates. The dynamic of first-time and repeat visitation plays a key role in visitors’ wine tourism behavior and their perception of the winescape. The decision to engage in wine tourism is generally impulsive, even spurious, and the motivations guiding the visitors’ behavior predominantly hedonic in nature.     

Risk Perception and Buying Behavior: An Examination of Some Relationships in the Context of Cruise Tourism in Jamaica

Cruise tourism continues to grow substantially, even as many other forms of travel stagnate. In this era of increasing worldwide violence against tourists, safety, security, and risk abatement are becoming principal components in travelers' decision-making processes. This work examines the issue of perceived risk and safety and what impact these perceptions have on shopping behavior. The research takes place in Jamaica, a country with a reputation for aggressive vendors. Findings indicate that those visitors who traveled with others spent more time shopping and purchased more. Additionally, it was found that first time visitors express higher levels of discomfort with their surroundings than did repeat visitors, thus inhibiting purchase behavior. Finally, it was found that levels of perceived risk and security did have an impact on a traveler's intention to return to Jamaica.     

Chinese New Year Festival: Exploring consumer purchase intention at the flower market in Macau

The flower market is a traditional event during the Chinese New Year Festival in Macau. Previous research shows that many unplanned purchases are made in such an environment. This study attempts to investigate what factors influence impulse purchase intention at the flower market. A consumer survey was conducted and 250 respondents were interviewed at various popular flower market venues. The results indicate that distinct packaging has the highest influence on impulse purchase intention, followed by healthy product, special price offer, and free sample tasting, while prime location has the least and adverse effect. The findings provide insight for booth retailers in budget allocation for a festival event held once a year and estimation of impulse purchase in accordance with the effect of each marketing mix strategy.     

The mediation of information technology on visitors’ experience at a cultural heritage site

This study identifies perceptual differences between the experiences of using an interactive ubiquitous access tourism service (U-tourism service) at a cultural heritage site and on-site participation-driven services. An interactive U-tourism service, “Hwaseong Haenggung Histour”, a smart phone application, was developed and implemented for this study. The study found (a) visitors who experienced the U-tourism service showed higher recognition on such dimensions as education, novelty, entertainment and fellowships, regarded as important components of on-site experiences, than those who joined on-site participation-driven services and (b) young visitors who used the interactive U-tourism service recorded higher in the dimensions of both education and novelty than those who joined on-site participation-driven services and showed higher satisfaction. These findings provide strong justification for the introduction of U-tourism services, particularly for young visitors. This study contributes to the understanding of a fast-growing and influential electronic tool for cultural heritage sites.     

Visitor attendance motivations at consumer travel exhibitions

This study identifies the major motivations of visitors for attending consumer travel exhibitions and segments visitors based on their motivations. The findings suggest that visitors to consumer travel exhibitions have multiple motivations: acquiring purchase information, being attracted by the theme, or being encouraged to visit by media coverage. Half of the visitors perceived travel fairs to be an important distribution channel through which they could get special deals on travel to desirable destinations (or at least sourcing information on travel). It seems likely that consumer travel show attendance may be closely linked with the individual leisure desires of the visitor. The study suggests two clusters: 1) Shopper cluster whose major motivation is purchasing and 2) Total Visitors whose motivation is to undertake an ongoing information search and attend seminars to maintain their awareness of new trends with the tourism industry.