The number of new wineries in the northern parts of the United States has been increasing in recent years. The reasons include the development of new cold region cultivars. These emerging wineries are small and rely heavily on their tasting room and on-site experiences for product distribution. An understanding of the winery visitors in these new wine regions is important in designing wine experiences.
This study, Exploring Winery Visitors in the Emerging Wine Regions of the North Central United States (2020) by Lee, Cole and Holececk explores the relationships between pre-trip characteristics, on-site evaluation, and post-visit evaluation of visitors to seventeen Wisconsin and four Minnesota wineries.
A total of 320 surveys were used for the analysis of questions based on standardized or previously utilized tests. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to explore the multivariable relationships among the variables.
The pre-trip characteristics has two motivations, 1) leisure-based or 2) epistemic. Leisure-based being a more fun and relaxing experience. Epistemic motivation being more knowledge-seeking. The wine involvement scale, uses low or high involvement, and pertains to consumption and purchasing behaviors. The perceived values or attributes of the winery experience during the visit are captured by seven items. Post-visit evaluations included satisfaction, place attachment, and destination loyalty.
Here are the main takeaways from the results of the study:
- “As hypothesized, both leisured-based motivation and low-wine involvement were more positively related to perceived values than epistemic motivation and high-wine involvement.” [p.11]
- “In the case of motivation, positive relationships between leisure motivation with other values could imply that visitors have relatively lower expectations toward winery attributes and be less strict about evaluating its features.” [p.11]
- “Regarding wine involvement, it was found that being highly involved in wine was only positively related with social value.” [p.11]
- “By contrast, low-involved winery visitors, as a group that pursues casual leisure, might be concerned more about their instant hedonistic experience as tourists.” [p.11]
- “Results also suggest that leisure-motivated and low wine-involved visitors appear to be the most valuable customers since they perceive values more extensively.” [p.12]
- “One of the key wine tourism attributes that can satisfy winery visitors was service, which ultimately, led to winery loyalty.” [p.12]
This study should be of interest to not only emerging wineries or regions but also to established wineries. The results indicate that the perceived value of a visitor’s experience differs by motivation and previous wine experience. Wineries could develop strategies on how to capture this information from visitors prior to their experiences.
The authors expand research knowledge by being one of the first to utilize the perceived value as a multidimensional factor in a winery tourism context. In addition, this study is the first to look at the relationship between on-site evaluations and post-visit evaluations of wineries. The study is limited to Wisconsin and Minnesota wineries, and might not be representative.
Jenni Soo-Hee Lee, Dan McCole and Don Holececk document their research in the article, “Exploring Winery Visitors in the Emerging Wine Regions of the North Central United States” published in Sustainability, 2020, Volume 12, Number 4.
