One of the most important characteristics of a developed wine tourism region is the winery visit. A common way to evaluate visits to wineries has been through customer surveys, which has its limitations. The use of social media as an evaluation source for wineries or wine regions has proven to be useful. A recent study (2022) by Barbierato, Bernetti and Capecchi uses TripAdvisor to analyze the reviews and rankings by wine consumers worldwide to determine quality of service.
The findings utilize 89,672 TripAdvisor reviews over a decade from the most developed wine regions in the world, including Napa Valley and Tuscany. Quantitative analysis was used for the 1-5 (bubble) rankings and sentiment analysis and natural language processing for the qualitative data retrieved from the platform. Make sure to read the article’s literature review, it provides rich background on several research fields, including social media in wine tourism, the winescape concept and service quality assessment.
Here are some takeaways from the global study:
- “According to the rankings on the TripAdvisor platform, based on the number of reviews, the top five wine destinations in the world are: Tuscany (Italy) in first place, followed by Napa Valley (USA), Hunter Valley (Australia), Stellenbosch (South Africa), and Mendoza (Argentina).” [p.50]
- “…One of the most appreciated features of TripAdvisor in marketing research is its reliability. The platform has an efficient, automated quality control and review reliability system…” [p.51]
- “…the region with the highest perceived sentiment for service quality was Tuscany, followed by Mendoza, Napa Valley, Stellenbosch, and Hunter Valley.” [p.54]
- “The core product, wine, is central to the perception of service quality both in the global analysis and separately in all five wine regions. In the global analysis, it is associated with the themes of “visit” and pairing with “food.”[p.54-55]
- “The analysis identifies seven prevalent themes of service quality: “wine,” … “tour,” … “tasting,” … “winery,” … “service,” … “view,” … “staff.” [p.54]
- “The “wine product” is certainly the most frequently perceived attribute in the evaluation of the quality of a visit to a cellar, followed by the tasting experience…The guided tour is the third most-cited theme in positive reviews. [p.58]
This study should be of interest to the wine industry, not only for wineries but for regional wine associations and tourism agencies. The study validates the global and regional factors that are important to quality of service at wineries, including the wine itself, followed by tastings and tours. The use of the seven validated factors can be used as a framework for organizing comments.
The authors expand research knowledge by validating the use of TripAdvisor as a reliable supplemental source to surveys. The study also introduces the concept of “service failure” and makes the case for its importance in measuring the perception of service quality. The approach of splitting out the positive rankings and negative comments, and vice versa, is useful information for analysis.
Elena Barbierato, Iacopa Bernetti and Irene Capecchi document their research in the article, “What went right and what went wrong in my cellar door visit? A worldwide analysis of Tripadvisor’s reviews of Wineries and Vineyards” published in Wine Economics and Policy, 2022, Volume 70, pages 47-72.
