This study examines how festivals can promote wine products and wineries and influence customer behavioral intentions. Specifically, this research proposes a theoretical model, focusing on the relationships among (1) perceived festival quality, (2) satisfaction with the wine festival, (3) subsequent awareness of local wines and wineries, and (4) future intentions to buy local wine products and to visit wineries. A structural equation modeling analysis reveals that attendee evaluation of festival quality positively influences satisfaction with the festival, and that satisfaction exerts a positive and direct influence on awareness of local wines and wineries. Festival quality appears not to directly affect behavioral intentions, whereas satisfaction and awareness have positive and direct relationships with intentions. Mediator functions of satisfaction and awareness are also discussed. This study extends previous research by specifically considering ways in which service quality and satisfaction with a wine festival bring about product awareness and behavioral intentions.

As special-interest tourism, wine tourism is becoming increasingly important for wine-growing regions. But wine marketers are faced with a paucity of empirical data when examining wine tourists’ characteristics and behaviour. This issue needs to be addressed if marketers want to implement more effective strategies to target the market. Visiting wine festivals is an important component in the complete construct of wine tourism. What might have motivated the participants to visit such an event has become critical for wine-growing destinations when they attempt to use wine festivals to promote the wineries and regions. This research study used a survey instrument specially designed to test participants’ motivations to attend a regional wine festival in a Midwestern state in the USA. Both festival and wine tourism motivations were integrated in the measurement scale. The findings showed that attendees were motivated by a variety of factors which were associated with the focus on the different elements incorporated in the theme of the festival — a synergy of wine, travel and special event. Wine festivals can be used as a vehicle to attract younger people to become more interested in wine. They create a good venue to tap into future target markets for wine tourism development.

Gastro-tourists specifically travel to learn about new cultures through memorable food experiences. They span all ages, ethnicities, and incomes. These tourists plan more trips, stay longer, and spend more discretionary money when they travel. Interactions that include learning about regional foods and kitchen cultures and that foster relationships between the gastro-tourist and the gastro-host are more important to them than fancy amenities. Research that identifies characteristics and attributes of gastro-tourism experiences considered memorable is sparse. This inductive qualitative research study triangulated three data sources and two data collection methods (in-depth interviews and online surveys). Seven attributes linked to memorability are identified: (1) deliberate and incidental gastro-tourists, (2) travel stages, (3) foodie risk-taking, (4) interdependent co-created tourist–host relationships, (5) authenticity, (6) sociability, and (7) emotions. The attributes provide insights into the prevalent shift from product/service-dominant tourism to co-created experiential tourism opportunities and highlight the motivations that drive this emerging gastro-tourism market segment. By uncovering triggering moments that gastro-tourists value and find memorable, this study adds to the knowledge base of sustainable tourism development, destination branding promises, co-creation, and stakeholder theories.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between internal marketing practices, employee job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnover intention in the foodservice industry. Design/methodology/approach – The target population was employees who were currently working at a restaurant in the USA. All respondents were recruited from different states for the generalization of the study results. A confirmatory factor analysis validated the measurement model, and subsequently, structural equation modeling tested the proposed model. Findings – Three internal marketing practices – vision, development and rewards – were good indicators for predicting employee job satisfaction, and two internal marketing practices – development and rewards – in addition to job satisfaction were significant predictors for employee organizational commitment. Finally, the findings indicated that job satisfaction and affective commitment had a significant impact on lowering employee turnover intention. Research limitations/implications – In further research, more internal marketing practices – such as employee motivation, customer orientation, sharing information, employee empowerment – can be added to the model to increase employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Practical implications – Foodservice operators should focus on internal marketing practices to have satisfied employees who, in turn, are more likely to deliver high service quality to customers. Originality/value – This study has not only extended the influential scope of the internal marketing theory to organizational commitment, but has also proposed the antecedents of organizational commitment (i.e. internal marketing practices and employee job satisfaction) and clarified the relationships among them.

The study constructs a temporal model of wine tourist behaviour on the basis of the social psychologist' theory of consumer attitudes and related concepts with regard to past behaviour, satisfaction, perceived value and behavioural intentions. More importantly, this study added two dimensions to this model by proposing that satisfaction and perceived value had an impact on the attendees' intentions (i) to visit a local winery and (ii) to buy local wine products. Using a path analysis approach and data collected from the attendees at a regional wine festival, the study examined the above relationships. The results of this path analysis can be summarised as: (i) past behaviour infl uenced the intention to revisit and the level of perceived value, but had no effect on the level of satisfaction; (ii) perceived value strongly affected the level of satisfaction; (iii) satisfaction had a strong impact on future intentions to revisit and also an effect on intentions to visit local wineries and to buy local wine products; and (iv) perceived value affected the intentions to revisit the festival and to visit local wineries but did not infl uence the intentions to buy local wines. It is believed that the results of the present study will be useful to organisers of wine festivals and/or wine tourism developers.

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Food festivals can offer a whole host of sensory experiences for visitors while engaging with a destination and its people. Understanding visitors' motivations to attend a specific food festival is beneficial for both community developers and festival professionals when implementing an effective marketing strategy in order to promote the event. This study applied a festival motivation framework incorporating three interacting components as the foundation to study food festival motives. The factor analysis results revealed six delineated motivational dimensions of visitors attending a regional food festival in Texas. Findings indicated patrons attended the food festival for generic leisure and travel needs, event-specific experiences, and extrinsic motives. Marketing implications are discussed along with the findings.

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