Wine Tourism

Wine Tourism

Introduction

The tourism industry is rapidly developing to accommodate different subsectors based on the demand for other tourist services. Wine tourism aims at or includes the purchase, consumption, and tasting of wine. The recognition of wine tasting as a tourist activity has increased the popularity of wine tourism in various rural areas. Attracting wine tourists requires creating genuine and unique experiences that must be differentiated and personalized. The experiences influence a wine tourism provider’s ability to attract and retain loyal local and global wine tourists. The experiences must simultaneously contribute to creating memorable experiences, optimizing them, and making them more stimulating to create an emotional response to the wine. The high emphasis on customer experience in wine tourism demonstrates that tourists’ experiences define the success of wine tourism by creating a foundation for wine tourism activities.

The Relationship between Tourists’ Experiences and the Success of Wine Tourism

According to Byrd et al. (2016), wine tourism includes travelling to wineries and the experiences of wine tourists who visit wine production destinations. Byrd et al. (2016) argue that a wine tourist can be defined as someone who desires to experience the geographic space in vineyards and taste wine. Wine tourists may be local or from different parts of the world, thus demonstrating a mix of demographic attributes, including cultures. Other demographic attributes include profession, income, and education. According to Carlsen & Boksberger (2013), wine tourism focuses on adding customer value to wine tourism experiences. The authors define value based on wine tourists’ perspectives. Value allows wineries to evaluate their offerings to ensure that they provide the services, products, and a conducive setting to consumers to create value in wine tourism. Value creation can include offering high-quality wine and unique experiences, such as tourist activities that enable tourists to appreciate the history of the wine they are tasting. In addition, Santos et al. (2019) argue that wine is the main product in wine tourism and is perceived as an experimental aspect, thus creating an intimate relationship centred on wine tourism involvement, particularly experiences associated with the hedonic view. The experience includes creating feelings through touch, smell, taste, hearing, and sight. The authors argue that wine experiences make the main point of all wine tourist activities and are vital in the supply of wine tourism. The knowledge gained by wine tourists when visiting wine tourism destinations is relevant and can be used to attract more tourists through referrals.

According to Zhang & Lee (2022), wine tourism creates a hedonistic experience because more interactive and service-oriented marketing channels characterize it. Therefore, wine purchase and consumption are linked to social motivation, tourist experiences, and hedonism. Zhang & Lee (2022) argue that the sensual and hedonic nature of wine tourists’ experiences shapes wine tourism. According to Santos et al. (2019), wine tourism integrates demand and supply in the wine tourism experience. Demand for wine tourism consists of tourists’ motivations, perceptions, and expectations. Supply includes wine tourists’ resources to create a good wine tourism experience. Wine tourist destinations transform the resources into the final wine tourism product. Santos et al. (2019) add that wine tourism and the experiences of wine tourists are shaped by the ancient traditions and practices of vineyards and the wine connected to local culture. Therefore, wine experiences are the main component of wine tourist activities and are vital to the wine tourism package despite being connected to the manor, farm, cellar, and landscape. In addition, Carlsen & Boksberger (2013) argue that the interaction between visitors and staff shapes the cellar door experience and wine tourism, the setting of the cellar door, the wine product, management systems, and other characteristics of the winery. The authors argue that wine tourism customer value is not generated at the purchase point but includes various interactions where value can be generated throughout the winery visits.

Moreover, the study by Santos et al. (2019) established that wine tourism should be viewed as a framework that focuses on wine tourism activities and experiences. The activities in wine tourism are essentially founded on visits to wine cellars, museums, and wine tastings. Therefore, wine tourism has to create room for developing genuine and unique tourism experiences that must be more differentiated and personalized. According to Santos et al. (2019), the experiences are formed by what the wine tourist destinations offer to attract tourists and maintain customer loyalty. Wine tourism experiences are unforgettable experiences that simultaneously contribute to improving tourist experiences and making them more stimulating and enriching. Wine tourist destinations are focusing on offering personalized and differentiated experiences to promote their destinations. Gu et al. (2019) argue that the deep wine tourism experience includes engaging activities like staying at a winery overnight, which requires the time and energy of the wine tourists. Therefore, creating a unique wine tourism experience requires collaboration between sectors, actors, and stakeholders. The partnership includes creating unique tourist experiences that lead to the success of wine tourism by defining the activities that wine tourists can consider to make their visits enjoyable.

According to Byrd et al. (2016), understanding the benefits of a winescape attracts wine tourists, thus encouraging visits, revisits, and recommendations. The authors argue that wine tourists are mainly interested in tasting local wines as part of outdoor relaxing days with occasions to socialize with family and friends and enjoy the beauty of different vineyards. Strategic regional advertising may create hedonic value from wine tourism. Other benefits that enhance the wine tourism experience include attending wine events and visiting vineyards, thus creating added value in wine tourism. Gu et al. (2019) argue that different facilitators can also generate benefits in wine tourism. The authors define facilitators as the driving factors that cause participation and develop leisure preferences. They include interpersonal, intrapersonal, and structural facilitators. Firstly, interpersonal facilitators include groups or individuals that encourage, enable or promote the development of engagement and preference.

On the other hand, intrapersonal facilitators are the specific attributes that promote the development of preferences and participation. Lastly, structural facilitators are the external factors that impact the growth of preferences among people and engagement. The external factors include belief systems, social and physical establishments, and societal institutions.

Furthermore, according to Gu et al. (2019), local attractions in wine tourism are connected to the tourist’s participation. Therefore, local attractions near wine tourism destinations significantly impact tourism. The study conducted by Gu et al. (2019) established that if wine tourists visit a wine tourist destination or winery with many local attractions, they have a pleasant experience and are satisfied with their tourism experience. Therefore, tourists look for occasions to relate with local attractions and hosts to improve their tourism experience. The study also found that small vineyards with local attributes, a sense of authenticity, and local cultural features attract more tourists.

In contrast, small vineyards attract tourists through marketing and can work with famous local wineries to enhance the routing and distribution of customers. According to Gu et al. (2019), partnering with big wineries prevents delays in managing tourists’ needs in wineries with many tourists and increases opportunities to relate with locals in small vineyards. Small vineyards can also consolidate their activities, like offering celebration venues, family meetings, wine and food pairing, and winemaking.

Zhang & Lee (2022) also argue that entertainment is vital to tourism services and products. The authors say that wine tasting is a great entertainment experience. Various wine shops in wine tourist destinations are the leading entertainment elements in wine tourism (Zhang & Lee, 2022). Wine tourists are also attracted by activities that give them emotional pleasures and wine-related knowledge. Educational experiences give tourists satisfaction and the antecedent of memory. Wine tasting also creates opportunities for visitors to get updated knowledge of wineries and wine (Zhang & Lee, 2022). Therefore, wineries organize meetings, workshops, and learning sessions to create a memorable tourist experience. The esthetic experiences are created when tourists are immersed in the destination’s attractiveness and generate a passive attitude when being touched by and appreciating the glamour in the wineries and vineyards. However, they have less connection with their activities (Zhang & Lee, 2022). The aesthetic experience creates a sensual environment that creates a positive memory and loyalty to a destination in wine tourism.

According to Zhang & Lee (2022), winescape is essential in tourism. The authors argue that features unrelated to wine, such as the landscape and atmosphere of tourist destinations, have become the most vital aspects of a wine tourism experience. Heritage and landscape are also among the factors that attract tourists to a winery. Zhang & Lee (2022) argue that driving around and hiking alongside orchards and vineyards are everyday aesthetic activities that increase the attractiveness of wine tourist destinations. Besides, according to Gu et al. (2019), local attractions near a wine tourist destination significantly impact the wine tourism experience. The authors argue that if a visited wine region or winery has many attractions, tourists experience a satisfactory and pleasant engagement with the winery. Therefore, tourists look for occasions to interact with local attractions or hosts to improve their experience.

Santos et al. (2019) argue that including festivals and events in the marketing and advertising of wine tourist destinations has become vital. Most destinations use events and tourism, sensory experiences, complimentary wine-tasting opportunities, and creating opportunities to build a relationships with wine tourists. Wine tourists can also make a positive connection with wine-tourist destinations. According to Byrd et al. (2019), wine tourist destinations create a positive connection with tourists through service-related aspects beyond the wine, such as tasting room services, knowledge of winemakers, and educational opportunities for visitors to increase their wine skills and knowledge.

Further, according to Byrd et al. (2019), customer service is critical in improving wine tourists’ experience and the performance of wine tourist destinations. Customer service is connected to opportunities for socializing with other tourists at the winery or engaging in events such as club membership activities. Customer service is also enhanced. According to Zhang & Lee (2022), staff encounters in wine tourism are vital in the winery experience and creating a genuine connection with tourists based on a sense of commitment and passion for the wine in a wine destination for tasting. Customer service makes experiences more authentic and increases brand loyalty and sales. The authors argue that charging a fee for wine tastings, the winery scale, and the tension between emotional engagement among tourists and commerciality are essential to customer service. Customer service is also enhanced through the environment of the wine tourist destinations. According to Carlsen & Boksberger (2013), wine tourists in wine tourism expect the service and setting of wine in a well-presented and clean tasting room with a pleasant environment. The main convenience attributes include having adequate car parking, signage, quality at cellar doors, and offering quality wines.

Another essential part of customer service in wine tourism is socializing with relatives and services and positive social value. Carlsen & Boksberger (2013) argue that positive social value can be acquired from being linked to tourism, wine, and lifestyle practices in wine tourism destinations. However, the extent of social value influences self-assessed wine knowledge and customer expectations. Another vital component of customer service in wine tourism is conditional value, which extends past the cellar door and winery managers because wine tourists determine the social interactions and groups in a wine tour. Carlsen & Boksberger (2013) also argue that customer service in wine tourism can be personalized and managed by responding to the main attributes that customers seek. Many wineries focus on customizing and personalizing customer experience based on the culture of wine tourists to create a unique and memorable experience.

Conclusion

Wine tourism is rapidly developing as people appreciate wines produced in different regions and gain an interest in understanding wine history. The main factors that promote wine tourism are tourist experiences and the value of customer service they receive. Therefore, wine tourist destinations invest in providing unique experiences to create a long-term competitive advantage. Tourists’ experiences also play a vital role in the success of wine tourism because tourists develop an interest in visiting wine tourism destinations based on the reviews given by people who have seen the destinations and prior experience. Wine tourist destinations constantly upgrade their products and services based on tourist recommendations to create a personalized experience. Personalizing and customizing may include adding activities that make the tourist experience more engaging. Wine tourists’ experiences are also tied to the quality of customer service they get when they visit wine tourist destinations. High-quality services create customer satisfaction, leading to return visits and encouraging tourists to recommend a destination to their families and friends. The wine tourism experience is also evolving to accommodate the changes in customer needs and preferences, such as the need for family activities and education. The education given to wine tourists has grown from just focusing on explaining the wine production process to presenting the history of the vineyard where the wine was produced to allow tourists to connect with the experience they have during wine tasting. Other activities used in wine tourist destinations to attract customers include allowing tourists to hike along the vineyards and enjoy the beautiful scenery. Therefore, the growth of the tourism industry is linked to tourist experiences, whereas the experiences shape the tourist activities in different wine tourist destinations.

References

Byrd, E. T., Canziani, B., (Jerrie) Hsieh, Y., Debbage, K., & Sonmez, S. (2016). Wine tourism: Motivating visitors through core and supplementary services. Tourism Management, 52, 19-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2015.06.009.

Carlsen, J., & Boksberger, P. (2013). Enhancing consumer value in wine tourism. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 39(1), 132-144. https://doi.org/10.1177/1096348012471379.

Gu, Q., Qiu, H., King, B. E., & Huang, S. (. (2019). Understanding the wine tourism experience: The roles of facilitators, constraints, and involvement. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 26(2), 211-229. https://doi.org/10.1177/1356766719880253.

Santos, V. R., Ramos, P., Almeida, N., & Santos-Pavón, E. (2019). Wine and wine tourism experience: A theoretical and conceptual review. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, 11(6), 718-730. https://doi.org/10.1108/whatt-09-2019-0053.

Zhang, Y., & Lee, H. M. (2022). Exploring the wine tourism experience constructs A qualitative approach. Proceedings of the 2022 7th International Conference on Financial Innovation and Economic Development (ICFIED 2022). https://doi.org/10.2991/aebmr.k.220307.530.

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