CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Wine & Tourism
2.1.1 Wine, Culture, Heritage, Rural Landscape, Travel and Terroir
Literatures indicate the inevitable intimacy of wine tourism research and rural settings.
As Dunstan (1990, in Getz, 1998) notes that wine tourism is the integration of wine and culture, heritage conservation, and architecture of wineries (Dunstan, 1990, in Getz, 1998). Many researchers have suggested that “rurality” is a core element of the wine tourism experience (Carlsen & Dowling, 1998; Carmichael, 2005; Getz &
Brown, 2006; Howland, 2007; Mitchell, 2004). Getz (1998) also notes the attraction of wine combined with other forms of tourism, such as cultural, rural, urban, and industrial. In particular, Carmichael (2005) asserts that the rural landscape is an integral part of the wine tourism experience. The romantic gaze (Urry, 2002) of tourists on rural settings stimulates an aesthetic appreciation of the natural environment (Mitchell et al., 2012); the cultural and historical context of the wine region (Frochot, 2000); the winery and its cellar door (Charters, Fountain, & Fish, 2009; Williams, 2001) and its production methods (Charters, 2006). It recalls the attention to the interdependence between culture and tourism sectors since cultural assets can attract tourism to a specific destination, and tourism can bring new and fresh resources to the cultural sector and the entire region, setting up clusters (Alberti
& Giusti, 2012) and, thus, nurturing competitiveness (Ferreira & Estevao, 2009;
Jackson & Murphy, 2002; Novelli, Schmitz, & Spencer, 2006). Above all, the concept of terroir is of significance in integrating all of the elements. It comes from a French term with no literal translation into any language but relates to the soil and
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environment and the way winemakers interact with it to produce wine. This idea brings philosophy for wine growers into respecting the land of production and the land tenure. Considering all elements of wine, culture, rural settings and the lands, terroir can be treated as a concept or knowledge (Mitchell et al., 2012) before setting out towards understanding the marriage of wine and tourism.
2.1.2 Wine Tourism
Wine tourism, as one niche market in agri-tourism (Hjalager & Corigliano, 2000), is growing rapidly in popularity in wine producing regions (Carmichael, 2005). It based on two crucial elements, wine and tourism, intimately linked for years, but has been gaining attention during the last decade by the governments, researchers, and the industries themselves (Hall et al., 2000). Wine, a traditional product long grown in France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, was been introduced and spread across the New World countries (Cooper, 1984; Allen, Atkin, Cooper, Neill, Platter & St. Pierre, 1997;
Arkell, 1999; Anderson, 2001; Hashimoto & Telfer, 2003; Demhardt, 2003) Argentina, Australia, Chile, U.S and South Africa over the last two centuries. Wine sets the foundation of concept of wine tourism (Alonso, 2005) since it is not only a product but also associated with “relaxation, communing with others, learning about new things and hospitality” (Dodd, 1995). The social revolutions leashed the middle class and not until the publication of 1855 Classification of the Wines of the Gironde certifies the significance of wine. It implies social status and furthermore, concerns health benefits (Dodd & Morse, 1994; Klatsky, 1997; Maxwell, 1997). However, the visit to vineyards has to be traced back to the time of Grand Tour as the first contact of wine and tourism and likely ever since the times of ancient Greek and Rome (Hall et al., 2000). As Dodd (1995) suggests that wine tourism is associated with hospitality,
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the marriage (Dodd, 1995; Bruwer, 2004) between wine industry and tourism began at the wineries where congregate (Leiper & Carlsen, 1998) people who are interested in the wine production and inclined to purchase. Gradually, the wine and tourism are getting more interdependent, forming a wine tourism phenomenon in touristic places such as Australia (Carlsen, Getz & Dowling, 1998; Morris & King, 1998; Williams &
Young, 1998), and the Napa and Sonoma Valleys in California (Brown, 1981, in Hall, Sharples, Cambourne, Macionis, Mitchell & Johnson, 2000; Skinner, 2000). Apart from the New World countries, Wine tourism is developed in Germany and France (Howley, 1998; Frochot, 2000), and in Italy, where combines the tour to historical attractions (Worldwide Boom, 1997; Donaldson, 2004; Novelli, 2004). There is also one important phenomenon is that studies show that some areas of the world that either have the potential to develop wine tourism, or are benefiting from it already (Gilbert, 1992; Dodd & Bigotte, 1997; Howley, 1998; Howley & Van Westering, 1998;
Telfer, 2000; Hall, Sharples, Cambourne, Macionis, Mitchell & Johnson, 2000; Getz, 2000; Bruwer, 2003; Williams & Dossa, 2003; van Westering & Niel, 2003; Correia &
Ascencao, 2004; Loubser, 2004).
The definition of wine tourism has been continuously discussed and not yet united.
One definition of wine tourism is subsumed that “wine tourism is visitation to wineries and wine regions to experience the unique qualities of contemporary Australian lifestyle associated with the enjoyment of wine at its source - including wine and food, landscape and cultural activities (Winemakers Federation of Australia, 1996). However, the empirical definition by Hall (1996) and Macionis (1996) notes that wine tourism as a “visitation to vineyards, wineries, wine festivals and wine shows for which wine tasting and/or experiencing the attributes of a wine region are the prime motivating factors for visitors” (Hall, 1996; Macionis, 1996). It indicates
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what motivates a wine tourist and what, why, where he/she performs during the winery experience. Another definition by Charters & Ali-Knight (2002) that “Wine tourism is often part of an overall ‘bundle of attractions’ for a tourist” indicates the essential being of a wine tourist as a crucial part of wine tourism. A wider definition of wine tourism is an “experiential tourism occurring within wine regions providing a unique experience which includes wine, gastronomy, culture, the arts, education and travel (Dowling, 1998:78). Van Westering (1999) also defines wine tourism while he focuses only on attractions such as heritage, landscape and the wine made. As for the dimensions of wine tourism, Getz (2000) suggests three roles that represent three perspectives in wine tourism: wine producers, tourism agencies (representing the destinations) and the consumers, which no one can be neglected. Later on, considering different sayings in wine tourism, Getz (2006) stresses that “wine tourism is, simultaneously a form of consumer behavior, a strategy by which destinations develop and market wine-related attractions and imagery, and a marketing opportunity for wineries to educate, and to sell their products, directly to consumers.” Thus, it is imperative to understand the role of a wine consumer as a wine tourist in wine tourism research.
2.1.3 Consumer experience tourism (CET)
For a consumer-centered research, there is a need to bring up literatures over consumer experience tourism (CET) over the past researches. Consumer experience tourism is also seen as manufacturing tourism, industrial attractions or industrial tourism. It arrives from the context of relationship marketing in an attempt to build bonding between brands and consumers. Take Scottish malt whiskey distilleries for example, CET has been taking place since the 1960s (McBoyle and McBoyle, 2008) so that it is definitely not a new paradigm. This tourist experience offers visitors with
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a bonding experience with the product and helps them increase their brand knowledge.
It provides a heightened level of personal product involvement (Mitchell & Mitchell, 2001a) and it raises a brand increases through CET according to involvement theory that as the level of cognitive involvement gains, it is more likely that loyalty increases as well. CET can also give customers greater pictures of the product, brand image reinforcement and increased word-of-mouth (WOM) about the product and the visit (Mitchell & Orwig, 2002). It should be stressed that the focal point for examining CET is the consumers’ relationship to the brand or the organization and not simply to the tourism experience (Mitchell and Mitchell, 2001b).
2.1.4 Wine Tourist
In recent years, the demand-side research is gaining its amounts since researchers have begun to examine wine tourism from the tourists’ perspectives (Dodd 1997;
Dodd and Bigotte 1997; Dodd and Gustafson 1997; Morris and King 1997a, b; Longo 1999; Mitchell and McIntosh 1999). Among academics, little is announced about the characteristics of visitors to wineries (Dodd and Bigotte, 1997; Getz 1998; Charters &
Ali-Knight, 2002). As the focal point of this research, the demand-side researches on the elements which define the decision-making processes of the winery visitors will be examined. In order to better understand who the wine tourist is (Galloway et al., 2008), most of the demand-side literatures shed light on the distinctive characteristics by using several psychographic variables in segmenting the tourists including demographics, motivations, wine lifestyles, interests, values, personality and so on.
1. Definition of wine tourist
The earliest definition of a wine tourist can be traced back to Johnson (1998) when he
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defined wine tourism as “visitation to vineyards, wineries, wine festivals and wine shows for the purpose of recreation.” He illuminated the recreational essence of forming a wine tourist. The participant who has been part of these activities can be thus called a wine tourist as one of the “visitors to vineyards, wineries, wine festivals, and wine shows for the purpose of recreation” (Johnson, 1998). It has sparkled debates over the pitfall of this definition since it barely tells who a wine tourist is, what they do and why (Mitchell et al., 2000). However, the early references onto wine tourists before 1995 were not very much acclaiming due to such description as
“mobile drunks” (Spawton, 1986) or someone who spent “just a good holiday”
(McKinna, 1987). It implies the raising awareness of tourists’ wine-related activities for both wine and tourism industries. This ignoring nature of the wine tourist studies has been lifted after 1995, the academics started to gather data from tourists’
perspectives to combine with the one from the wineries based on the supply side. The shift of paradigm reveals the significance has been growing, matching the pace of global mass tourism trends since it gains weights among industries, stakeholders, and operators in understanding customer demands and consumer behaviors.
Getz (2000) suggests that “wine tourism is initiated by consumers who travel specifically for wine-related experiences or by travelers who include wine experiences in their destination visits”. That is, winery visitation can be labeled as consumer experiences (Getz, 2000). As Jago, Issaverdis, and Graham (2000) note that it is interesting how many people do not wish to be classified as tourists even though they are clearly participating in tourist activities. Charters and Ali-Knight (2002) also notice that most visitors described as “wine tourists” would not associate themselves with that label. However, to figure out what transform a tourist into a wine tourist requires a further understanding of their wine involvements.
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2. Wine involvement decides a wine tourist
Literatures have shown extensive discussions over wine involvement in wine marketing strategy studies. Quester (1996) and Smart (1998) investigate wine involvement among Australian wine buyers at retail stores, using attributes such as price, wine region, wine variety, and wine style. Meanwhile, Lockshin, Spawton and Macintosh (1997) posit a model according to 3 dimensions of wine involvement:
product, brand decision, and purchasing. Lockshin and Spawton (2001) suggest brand equity theories and wine buyers’ high and low product involvement, and conclude that these concepts can help develop wine tourism strategies.
The nature of wine tourism can be seen a result from hedonism or hedonic consumption (Hirschman and Holbrook, in Holbrook, 1995) (Figure 1). A hedonic consumption is an open-ended hedonic gratification that is part of recreational pastimes, and aesthetic experience, including wine (Dodd & Gustafson, 1997). This nature brings about motivation to seek leisure activities by conducting the hedonic consumption.
* Figure 1. The role of hedonism and hedonic consumption17
Wine involvement is also a basic sequence of influences related to visitors’ lifestyle characteristics (Alonso, 2005) (Figure 2). Outdoor goers and favorers of a healthier lifestyle (Commonwealth Department of Tourism, 1994, in Getz, 1998) typically
17 Alonso, 2005. “Wine tourism experiences in New Zealand: an Exploratory study”
Hedonism or
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involve much more of inclining to enjoying rural setting of the winery and the importance of having a relaxing day out (McRae-Williams, 2004). Main reasons for making winery visitations might be wine consumption in moderation, for health purposes; or to enjoy the peaceful rural, outdoor setting of the winery etc.
*Figure 2. The influence of visitors' lifestyle characteristics18
Also, studies by Plog (1991) and Ryan (1995) indicate individuals’ intrinsic characteristics and their motives for travelling appear to influence their involvement with travel and tourism. Their travelling process might end up dropping by a vineyard or a winery for recreational motives in regard to winery experience. Anyhow it increases and results in wine involvement in a certain sense (Figure 3).
*Figure 3. General travel and tourism involvement linked to wine tourism19
Wine involvement, is also a chief factor in the making of winery experience. Bloch’s (1986, in Goldsmith, d'Hauteville & Flynn, 1998) study shows wine involvement as
18 Alonso, 2005. “Wine tourism experiences in New Zealand: an Exploratory study”
19 Alonso, 2005. “Wine tourism experiences in New Zealand: an Exploratory study”
Wine tourists’
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the excitement, interest, and enthusiasm that consumers demonstrate towards the product category. Visitors’ behavior toward wine, including their participation in wine related activities, as well as performing traditional wine-related rituals, define the scale of their wine involvement (Figure 4).
*Figure 4. Potential impacts of wine involvement20
In concludes that winery visitors’ intensities of wine involvement can be described in terms of their knowledge, purchases, consumption, interest, and enthusiasm.
Therefore, studies define wine involvement (for example Zaichowsky, 1985, or Bloch, 1986, in Goldsmith, d'Hauteville & Flynn, 1998) with such dimensions as,
(1) Wine knowledge: Winery visitors’ willingness and desire to learn and become more familiar with the wine product.
(2) Wine purchases: Number of bottles bought per month, and the average amount of money paid for a bottle of wine.
(3) Wine consumption: Number of glasses consumed weekly.
(4) Interest in wine: Buying wine books, or having wine bottles stored in a wine cellar.
20 Adpated from Alonso, 2005. “Wine tourism experiences in New Zealand: an Exploratory study”
Behavior toward wine
• Wine consumption
• Wine club membership
• Visit wine festivals
• Own a wine cellar
• Wine study
Wine involvement
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(5) Enthusiasm about wine: Becoming a wine club member, or subscribing to wine magazines.
With the dimensions differing the scales and levels of wine involvement, winery visitors can be thus understood within four types (Hall, 1996):
(1) Wine lover: who is extremely wine interested (wine is a serious hobby and maybe a career) and who is an experienced winery visitor, visiting the region solely for wine, highly likely to purchase and adding their name to any mailing list.
(2) Wine connoisseur (Edwards, 1989): who identifies the highly knowledgeable
“wine lovers”.
(3) Wine interested: who have high interest in wine (include wine in wider lifestyle choices), who are likely to have visited other wine regions but wine is not the sole purpose of the visit to the destination; likely to add name to any mailing list and may become a repeat purchaser through having visited winery.
(4) Curious tourist: moderately interested in wine, who is motivated to visit the region by non-wine factors and wineries sees as “just another attraction.” The curiosity might be aroused by drinking or seeing winery product or general tourism promotion or pamphlets; may purchase but will not join the mailing list.
(Adapted from Hall, 1996)
The intensity of wine involvement forms levels of motivation to wine tourism.
Motivations for wine tourism are important in realizing consumer behavior and this understanding can be applied by wineries to efficiently aim at specific visitors that are the most likely beneficial to them. According to Lockshin and Spawton (2001),
“highly involved people relate to a product category as part of their lifestyle, and it
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holds an important place in their daily existence.” Such motivation might be influenced by external factors (pull factors) or internal ones (push factors) that form the wine tourist demands.
3. Younger tourists: Generation Y
Age and generational differences of the experienced service quality is critically important in this research. Dodd and Bigotte (1997) found evidence that older people were averagely less critical of their winery experience than younger tourists. Younger visitors see service quality a more important factor of their overall experience. In this context, there is a must to develop wine interests among generations in order to ensure the long-term survival of the wine industry (Beverland, 2001; Howard and Stonier, 2001; Bruwer, 2002; Mitchell, 2002; Treloar, 2002): the Generation Y.
In this context, a widely accepted definition of Generation X is for people born in the period 1964-1978 (King, 2001). They are seen more difficult to pinpoint (Beverland, 2001) due to their independent spirit (King, 2001; Martin and Tulgan, 2001) so that it would be comparatively harder to build brand loyalty (King, 2001) due to their alleged “skepticism” (King, 2001). Since 1979, Generation Y is born, a confident cohort; comfortable with evolving technologies, self-reliant, ambitious, tolerant of others and eager for a challenge (King, 2001; Martin and Tulgan, 2001). They seek stimulation in both their work and leisure environments by way of multi-sensory experiences, entertainment, fun and variety (Sheahan, 2005). However, currently younger drinkers are irregular drinkers as “when young adults begin drinking, wine doesn’t factor into the equation at all” (Scalera, 2002). This group’s early alcoholic experience might begin with experimenting beers and spirits (Scalera, 2002; Treloar, 2004) and wine is far less.
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Nevertheless, Treloar (2004)’s study shows a potential significance in younger wine tourists showing their interest in wine tourism. Charters and Fountain (2006) suggest that older visitors place a greater emphasis on the product also in their preference for
“space”, while younger visitors give more importance to the overall experience and the service they receive and can be explicit that quality of wine is secondary to them.
It implies a need to shift the marketing strategies due to the changing tourist demand based on the generational differences.
2.1.4 Winery Experience: Time, Setting & Activity
The winery experience is of central importance in wine tourism (Nella, 2010) (winery also refers to as tasting rooms, caves, and cellar doors). As mentioned above, In fact, since 1980s, the recognition of the importance of the hedonistic essence within consuming goods and services along with the authentic touring experience was raised in wine tourism researches. It implies the hedonistic directed researches are gaining more and more voices especially in view of experiential perspectives. According to Holbrook and Hirschman (in Holbrook, 1995), leisure experiences are subjective, emotional states laden with symbolic meaning. The experiential perspective out of hedonistic nature of research is introduced to the tourism field since it identifies the
“stream of consciousness or sensory, imaginal and affective complex that accompanies a tourist experience” (Lofman,1991). Visitors with hedonistic tendencies may be more involved with wine (Alonso, 2005). However, studies based on
“experiential view” (Mitchell et al., 2000) in wine tourism literature (Weiler, Truong
& Griffiths, 2004) have been considered not yet sufficiently emphasized. Winery experience (Mitchell, 1999, cited in Alonso et al., 2007b), however, can be commonly found throughout cuisine and travel literature (Mitchell et al. 2000) with romantic and
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lascivious nature. The association of tourism and winery experience was confirmed by Mitchell et al. (2000) and brings winery experience to light.
Wine tourism experiences (as with most tourism experiences) are much more than this, relying on the characteristics of the individual, the setting in which they occur, socialization with the personalities of wine, and interaction with other elements of the experience such as food, accommodation and other visitors. It is the sum of these elements, not each individually, that make up the winery experience. (Mitchell et al., 2000, p.130)
However, it is apparent that wine tourism experience is more than winery visit or wine purchase. It is the “culmination of a number of unique experiences: the ambiance, atmosphere, surrounding environment, regional culture and cuisine, local wine styles and varieties” (Williams, 2001). Furthermore, they take photos, buy postcards and make purchases that enable their “gaze” to be reproduced and recaptured (Urry, 1995).
Wine landscape (winescape), the venue where wine tourism experience takes place, is the focus of the romantic gaze of tourists on rural areas (Urry, 2002). The common romantic “rural idyll” based on nostalgia and sense of belonging and where people can escape from the city (Short 1991; Bell, 1992; Valentine, 1997). This romantic and nostalgic sense provides the backdrop to the winery experience which can be discussed through several dimensions.
Therefore, the element that forms a winery experience consists of temporal (or stage
Therefore, the element that forms a winery experience consists of temporal (or stage