Understanding Wine Tourists: Segmentation and Cultural Differences

General Profile of Wine Tourists

In Activity 4, we continue towards our goal of refining our understanding of the question, who is the Wine Tourist? To assist us in our understanding, please read the following excerpts from, Charters, S., & Ali-Knight, J. (2002). Who is the wine tourist? Tourism Management. Emphasis added. Some researchers have tried to give an overall general profile of the wine tourist. For instance, the South Australian Tourism Commission describes them as being ‘‘Couples with no children and those with higher education and incomes in professional occupations,’’ (South Australian Tourism Commission, 1997). Dodd and Bigotte (1997) suggest that income is one of the best predictors of wine consumption and therefore, wine tourists will not be ‘‘on cheap package deals.’’ Undoubtedly, however, there is no single, stereotypical ‘wine tourist’ nor therefore, a unilateral definition of him or her. Wineries themselves are realistic about the segmentation of their market at the cellar door, although their analysis of the segments is based on general awareness rather than any accurate method of data collection and analysis. Wineries [sic] interviewed [as part of this study] offer segments such as the ‘casual’ tourist who looks to taste and little else (Ali-Knight & Charters, 1999a). Estimates of the size of this group vary from 5 to 30 percent of all visitors. Another category preferred is the ‘sophisticated drinker’, who is hungry for as much information as can be obtained. Winery estimates of the numbers in this group vary from 5 percent upwards, depending on the winery and, probably, its reputation as a wine producer. In the perceptions of winery managers, however, most wine tourists clearly fall into some middle category, those who claim no special knowledge, but are interested in experience as much as learning, and who also drink wine regularly enough to make planned visits to a winery. This intuitive approach to the segmentation of wine tourists adopted by wineries is mirrored in the academic literature on the topic. Hall (1996, cited in Hall & Macionis, 1998), on the basis of discussions with representatives of the supply side, posited three categories: the ‘wine lovers’, the ‘wine interested’ and ‘curious tourists’, and provides some indicators pointing towards the profile of each. This is a useful starting point but focuses on the perceptions of the winery owner/managers rather than on the tourists themselves. European researchers have followed a similar line, in one instance proposing ‘the formal wine tourist’, the ‘tourist with an acknowledged interest in wine’ and the ‘general tourist’. However, the structure of tourism in different cultures varies, for instance, in Europe, the ‘formal wine tourist’ is perceived to travel in an organised tour (Unwin, Schenk, Vale, & Marti-Henneberg, undated), whereas in Australia and New Zealand, the highly wine-educated tourist is much less likely to do this than the ‘wine interested’ or ‘curious tourist’. Little research has been conducted into the cultural differences between wine tourists and how that affects their experience and behaviour (Charters, et al, 2002, pp.312-313). Now to complete this activity, please read the following. One, pages 315 to 319 in Charters, S., & Ali-Knight, J. (2002). Who is the wine tourist? Tourism Management (1982), 23(3), , which is located in the Course Material content area in our course VIULEARN site; and Two, the following excerpts (below) from, e cultural context has also been shown to influence wine consumption habits (Ferrarini et al., 2010). Accordingly, the differences in cultures are one aspect that has traditionally been considered in the literature on wine tourist behavior. These differences have proven clear in relation to cognitive aspects, such as price perception (Stevens, 1992; Suh and McAvoy, 2005) or the assessment of the quality of a product or service (Armstrong et al., 1997; Becker and Murmann, 1999; Gilbert and Wong, 2003; Sultan and Simpson, 2000). However, studies on the influence of affective aspects on the behavior of wine tourists across cultures have been less frequent (Chen and Huang, 2017; Ganglmair-Wooliscroft and Wooliscroft, 2013; Li et al., 2016), and those on differences in behavior because of the emotions produced by wine tourism are virtually nonexistent.(page 182)… This paper thus aims to compare the influence of emotions on wine tourists with regard to the purchase of the wine on offer at a winery in the old and new wine worlds. Specifically, it will analyze whether the surrounding wine culture is a moderating variable in the influence of emotions on such purchases. (page 182) … With regard to the moderating variable of culture on the influence of emotions produced by purchased food, Barrena et al. (2015) established the existence of differences between cultures in the emotional dimension associated with the purchase and consumption of couscous. Sorenson and Henchion (2011) observed that cultural factors affect neophobic [having an extreme or irrational dislike of anything new or unfamiliar] persons. These people feel negative emotions toward trying new foods, which makes them more likely to reject such items. Ares et al. (2015) demonstrated in five countries that the effects of food on well-being were strongly correlated with the creation of positive emotions and that cultural differences in the food category made a difference when associated with well-being. Arvola et al. (2008) conducted a cross-cultural study to predict purchase intent with regard to organic food in Italy, Finland and the UK. They found a large difference in the results for the affective and moral attitudes between the countries, with Italians being the most inclined to buy those products followed by Finns and then the British. Silva et al. (2016) found similar patterns with regard to beer and wine in the Netherlands and Portugal, where wine is associated with low-positive-stimuli emotions such as peace and love, while beer is associated with high-arousal emotional reactions such as feeling adventurous and energetic. (page 185) … This paper analyzed the influence of the emotions generated by the wine on offer and visits to a winery on wine purchase intent in tourists to two different wine regions with two different cultural visions of wine – the old wine world and the new wine world. Specifically, it compared the results for a winery based in La Rioja (Spain) in the old wine world, where 100 per cent of the tourists were European (mainly Spaniards) with those for a winery located in Baja California (Mexico) in the new wine world, where 100 per cent of the tourists were North American (mainly from Mexico and southern California, USA). The following results must be interpreted in the context of the study. To this end, although the wine description was controlled by showing the same offer at both destinations, the winery visit experience was neither controlled nor controllable, as the tours were real. The results revealed differences in the influence of emotions on the intention to purchase wine depending on the cultural context in which the tourist was considering the purchase. On the whole, the explanatory power of emotions on wine purchase intent was more than twice as high in Baja California (R2 of 57.6 per cent) as in La Rioja (R2 of 24.4 per cent). These results expand the findings of Arvola et al. (2008) and Barrena et al. (2015), who found difference between cultures with regard to the affective aspects of purchase intent for food items. This research increases current knowledge by analyzing the influence of two types of emotions on wine purchase intent: the emotions produced by the wine and the emotions produced by the visit to the winery. (pages 192-193) … 5.1 Implications for management: In Baja California, the explanatory power of the emotions produced by the wine was much higher than that of the emotions produced by the visit. In La Rioja, the explanatory power of the emotions produced by the wine was also much higher than that of the emotions produced by the visit. Moreover, previous research has demonstrated the existence of different types of wine tourists with different objectives (Bruwer, 2003; Mitchell and Hall, 2006; Alebaki and Iakovidou, 2011; Nella and Christou, 2014). Winery managers should distinguish between tourists who are truly interested in wine and purchasing wine and tourists who are merely interested in visiting the winery. If the objective is to sell wine at the winery and build their brand among tourists who are genuinely interested in buying wine, they should focus on that segment and afford it a differentiated treatment. The effort expended to sell wine to merely curious tourists solely interested in visiting the winery may be unnecessary. Furthermore, members of this latter group may feel uncomfortable if they feel pressured to buy wine, which could negatively affect their perception of the winery visit. Given that the emotions that most influence the purchase of wine are those produced by the wine itself, winery managers seeking to influence wine purchases at their establishments in a high positive way should focus their efforts on generating high positive emotions via the wine offer. When the explanatory power of the emotions produced by the wine and the winery visit in Baja California was added together, the overall explanatory power (57.6 per cent) was much greater than for the tourists visiting the winery in La Rioja (24.4 per cent). In this regard, companies with wineries in various destinations with different wine cultures seeking to carry out communication campaigns based on the generation of emotions by the wineries and their wines should bear in mind that the level of effort put into this communication should differ depending on the culture in which it is being carried out (e.g. a greater effort should be made for North American tourists than European ones, as it will have a greater influence on sales). (pages 193-194). Now that you have completed Activity 4, in fewer than 600 words in total, please submit your thoughts on the following questions. What advice would you give to a tourist visiting a winery for the first time? Predict one important concept to keep in mind for a winery in order to successfully engage in wine tourism? What does the designation, Wine Tourist, mean to you?