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.
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This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
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YooHee Hwang
YooHee Hwang is Assistant Professor in the School of Hotel and Tourism Management, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her research focuses on services marketing and cross-cultural issues.
Donna Quadri-Felitti
Donna Quadri-Felitti is Marvin Ashner Director and Associate Professor in the School of Hospitality Management, the Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on destination marketing and consumer experiences.