A quest for the healthy lifestyle and learning experiences in olive oil tourism

Abstract

Olive oil tourism is an emerging form of tourism and it has recently garnered attention owing to health-related benefits of olive oil. Prior research has investigated olive oil tourists’ characteristics, their motivations for olive oil tourism and drivers for satisfaction in the context of traditional markets, such as Spain and Italy. However, there is scant research understanding olive oil tourists’ experiences in emerging markets, such as the US. This void is important to fill as olive oil tourists in emerging markets may be different from those in traditional markets in terms of their knowledge in and consumption of olive oil. Drawing on the experience economy framework, the authors show that education (vs. aesthetics, entertainment, and escapist) experience is more closely related to satisfaction among US olive oil tourists. Olive oil tourism marketers may want to emphasize learning aspects of olive oil tourism via open-house tastings at olive mills, production tours, free sampling of various olive oils and food pairings.