Understanding wine tourism in China using an integrated product-level and experience economy framework

ABSTRACT

Wine tourism in China is an emerging market. This study addresses two research questions: the product offering and the tourist experience in this market. Findings of an exploratory study using netnography were examined by combining product levels theory and the experience economy model. The resulting proposed theoretical framework identified the status of China's wine tourism market as situated in the infancy stage. Results revealed the core product needed more customers’ involvement, and enrichment of the augmented product, to best position the wine destinations. While, enhancing educational, entertainment, and escapist experiences would benefit the whole experiences and increase future loyalty.

KEYWORDS:

• China’s wine tourism
• product level analysis
• experience economy
• netnography
• tourist experience
• added value

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by Griffith Institute for Tourism, Griffith University, Australia. We are thankful to our colleagues who provided proof reading grant that greatly assisted the research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.