"One increasingly popular type of agritourism that has great potential to contribute to local economies is winery tourism. In part this is due to the development of cold hardy grape varieties being grown in the northern United States. As wineries in northern states represent a still-emerging tourism industry, it is critical that they develop effective strategies to attract new visitors. To do this, they need to understand winery visitors' characteristics and their behaviors at wineries. To facilitate such understanding, this study profiled winery visitors based on their wine-related characteristics (wine consumption behavior, wine involvement), winery experience (satisfaction, primary winery activity), and socio-demographic factors. It also explored sequential relationships among winery visitors' pre-trip characteristics (motivation, wine involvement), on-site experiences (perceived value toward winery attributes), and post-trip evaluations (satisfaction, place attachment, winery loyalty). Winery visitors in Wisconsin and Minnesota were sampled by winery personnel on-site using a protocol designed by the author. Visitors were asked to provide their e-mail addresses and a week after the contact information was collected, a post-visit online survey was emailed to them. With completed surveys, a cluster analysis was used to classify winery visitors into three groups. Factors that most contributed to these group differences were wine consumption behavior, wine involvement, and satisfaction. The groups revealed varying amounts of wine purchases and levels of winery loyalty. In addition, partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) results showed that leisure-motivated and medium to low wine-involved winery visitors perceive more extensive values in their winery experience. Winery visitors' satisfaction and place attachment were predominantly influenced by perceived social, wine-quality, service and aesthetic values which ultimately led to winery loyalty. The study contributes theoretically to winery tourism knowledge by including winery activities in addition to conventional wine consumption characteristics. Furthermore, evaluating the on-site experiences of visitors based on perceived value as well as the relationship among antecedents and consequence behaviors contributes to experience-economy research in a winery tourism context. Winery owners stand to benefit from this research by now being able to target key visitor groups that contribute the most to winery revenue, as well as being able to design winery experiences that are most valued and contribute to positive post-visit evaluations. Limitations are discussed and future research suggested."--Pages ii-iii.
Read
