Wine tourists’ use of sources of information when visiting a USA wine region

Abstract

This study investigates the sources of information people (n = 334) use when deciding to embark on a wine tourism excursion by visiting a USA wine region environment. The study’s overall aim was to establish whether there are differences between first-time and repeat and between in-state- and out-of-state-based visitors in terms of sources of information they use to plan their visit to a wine region and how situational and sociodemographic variables relate to these. Specific differences exist in the information sources used by first-time and repeat wine tourists. Repeat visitors use informal sources such as exposure to a regional winery’s label, attending a tasting elsewhere and previous visits to the region significantly more than first-time visitors, who are more inclined to use formal sources such as brochures/pamphlets and the visitor information bureau. Word of mouth is used more than any other source by both in-state- and out-of-state-based visitors. Across the board, wine tourists did not differ much in their use of these sources by gender or age generation, with the exception of female millennials, in which case word of mouth and brochures/pamphlets were used significantly more.