The wine tourist: What's in a name?

Abstract

Wine tourism has brought together two important industries, namely, the tourism industry and the wine industry, and has substantial growth potential. Despite the prominence that has been given to wine tourism in recent years, it is surprising that there has been so little research into this area. This paper explores some of the definitions of wine tourism and identifies some of the problems that could arise as a result of the fact that the two component parts of wine tourism seem to have different objectives and different measures of success. The tourism industry tends to focus on visitor numbers whereas the wine industry is more interested in winery expenditure. The paper then investigates the characteristics of wine tourists and whether a wine tourist should be classed as a wine consumer. A survey that was conducted by a marketing research company is used to identify the characteristics of visitors to wineries who could be classed as more serious wine tourists based on the frequency of their winery visits. The key characteristics of these more serious wine tourists include more extensive wine knowledge, more regular wine consumption, and wine club membership. However, the paper suggests that these tourists may still not be the visitors who make the most substantial wine purchases and it is important to conduct further research into identifying the characteristics of such visitors in order to ensure the sustainability of wine tourism from the winery perspective.