Wine Tourism Research: The State of Play

Abstract

Research on wine tourism has expanded rapidly since the early 1990s with approximately two thirds of the literature coming from Australia and New Zealand, countries with not only substantial wine tourism but also a long record of wine marketing research. Of the remaining literature the dominant source countries for research are Canada and the US. Seven themes are identified from the literature and are discussed in turn: the wine tourism product and its development; wine tourism and regional development; the size of the winery visitation market; winery visitor segments; the behavior of the winery visitor; the nature of the visitor experience; and emerging area of research on the biosecurity risks posed by visitors. For each of the themes future research challenges and issues are identified. The review concludes by noting that although there is now a significant catalogue of research in the field, methods are still relatively crude and studies still tend to be regionally focused and quite generic in nature. There is therefore a need not only to improve the means by which results from different locations and populations can be compared but also to employ greater sophistication in the employment of qualitative and quantitative techniques in their examination.

An exploratory study of olive tourism consumers

“…The concept of olive tourism has emerged as a line of direct marketing of olive products to consumers, generating other sources of business (Alonso and Krajsic, 2013) in line with what happened in the wine tourism and widely discussed in the scientific literature (Mitchell and Hall, 2006;Alebaki and Iakovidou, 2010). However, the absence of research in the field of olive tourism is obvious, due mainly to the scarce tradition of this type of tourism (Alonso and Northcote, 2010).…”

Attendee Motivations at an International Wine Festival in China

“…Although wine tourist research indicates a wide variety of wine tourist characteristics (Charters & Ali-Knight, 2002;Mitchell & Hall, 2006), wine festival research largely assigns wine festival attendees and their motivations as a minor component of an overall holiday experiences in, or adjacent to, the core wine regions and wineries. Such studies have collected data on demographics and purchasing behavior (Mitchell & Hall, 2001b), interest in 452 O'REGAN, CHOE, AND YAP sociopsychological motivational domains (pull and push factors) was found to be an appropriate framework to develop the criterion to explore motivation.…”

Segmenting Wine Tourists on the Basis of Involvement with Wine

“…The authors proposed that motivation provides a useful segmentation basis as respondents with different demographic characteristics were found to place higher importance on specific motives. A number of researchers tried to develop alternative profiles of wine tourists based on various elements of the experience sought by wine tourists during their winery visits while Mitchell and Hall (2006) claim that a visit to a winery includes a complex of experiences. Cambourne, Macionis, Hall, and Sharples (2000) suggested that all the elements of the wine tourism experience appeal to different types of tourists and at the same time contribute to the development of winescapes that may include the following: aesthetics related both to the natural environment as well as to the winery itself (Charters, Fountain, & Fish, 2009;Williams, 2001); diverse educational experiences (Ali-Knight & Charters, 1999;Christou, 2011); a feeling of association with the winery (Fountain, Fish, & Charters, 2008); a sense of authenticity (Charters et al, 2009); significant cultural heritage of the wine region (Frochot, 2000); particular wine production methods and approaches (Charters, 2006); and a strong connection with the rural landscape and rurality (Carlsen & Dowling, 1998;Carmichael, 2005;Getz & Brown, 2006;Howland, 2007;Mitchell, 2004).…”