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ABSTRACT
The intense social nature of wine tourism is widely acknowledged. Yet there is a paucity of research examining the nature of travel groups and, more specifically, the relationship(s) between the motivations that drive them to visit wine tourism destinations. Our study is the first to examine these relationships in combination with motivation-based segmentation. Utilising a sample of 994 respondents drawn from three states in the USA’s mid-Atlantic region, and applying the ECHAID classification tree method, a robust segmentation solution is derived. Five segments merit further investigation of which three exhibit response rates of 80% plus and profile lifts of 1.32 or higher. These segments include respondents who: live in a household with at least one other wine drinker and either purchased mid-Atlantic wine and were a super core wine drinker (segment 2), did not purchase mid-Atlantic wine but did buy cases of wine (segment 4), or were single/the only adult in the household who drank wine, purchased mid-Atlantic wine, and were male (segment 6). We conclude that the relationship nature between members of visit groups influences motivation-based segmentation and socio-demographic group interaction effects exist in wine tourism. Practical implications of the findings are discussed and future research directions identified.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Kathleen M. Kelley is a Professor of Horticultural Marketing and Business Management at The Pennsylvania State University. For the past 17 years, her research, teaching, and extension programmes have focused on consumer attitudes and behaviours pertaining to horticultural services, goods, and value-added products.
Johan Bruwer is Professor of Marketing in the School of Marketing at the University of South Australia. He has been researching and publishing in the wine tourism domain across international boundaries for close to 20 years. His main focus is in direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing of wine businesses, both in Australia and abroad.
Jennifer Zelinskie is a graduate of The Pennsylvania State University, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Nutrition Sciences, Dietetics (2015), and a Master of Science degree in Horticultural Sciences (2017). Her thesis focused on assessing winery tasting room marketing strategies based on surveying Mid-Atlantic consumers about their attitudes and behaviours towards wine.
Denise M. Gardner is a wine making consultant that services wineries throughout the US. Her consulting methods use a science-based approach, emphasising continued education and practicality to produce quality-driven wines.
Ramu Govindasamy is a Professor and Chair, Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics at Rutgers University. He has been teaching and researching in agricultural marketing for 25 years. His research focuses on agri-tourism, direct marketing, organic produce marketing, ethnic produce marketing, value-added produce marketing and other similar topics.
Jeffrey Hyde is a professor of agricultural economics and serves as interim associate dean and director of extension at Penn State University. His research programme has focused on farm-level technology adoption and consumer perceptions of various food products, including wine.
Bradley J. Rickard is the Ruth and William Morgan associate professor in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University. He has published widely in the area of food and agricultural economics, with a specific interest in addressing contemporary marketing and policy issues in specialty crop markets.