Guest editorial: Wine and hospitality research: opportunities and challenges

Citation

Livat, F. and Song, H. (2024), "Guest editorial: Wine and hospitality research: opportunities and challenges", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 36 No. 8, pp. 2545-2554. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-08-2024-174

Introduction

Wine and hospitality are intrinsically linked from both consumer and business perspectives. In a hospitality setting, wine can complement food (Aune, 2002) and can form part of a pleasurable, educational, social and entertaining experience (Dodd, 1995). Wine is sold at the cellar door of a winery, sometimes accompanied by a visit to the winery or a meeting with the winemaker, and is also served on the winery premises or in cafes and restaurants. The winery itself can be a place of consumption and hospitality. Empirical research at the intersection of the studies of wine and hospitality can have important implications for businesses in all hospitality segments, including food and beverage, accommodation, travel and tourism, and entertainment and recreation. However, research on wine and hospitality is limited. This is confirmed by Bonn et al. (2018), who review the literature on wine research over a period of 26 years and find that studies on wine and hospitality primarily focus on wine marketing and tourism, largely ignoring consumers’ wine experiences in hospitality settings.

Wine consumption in both emerging and developed economies has increased significantly over the past decade. This has had a notable impact on the foodservice industry and the performance of restaurants and hotels. Not surprisingly, the study of wine in the on-trade sector has been a fruitful and expanding area of research since the 1960s, when it was recognized that wine contributes to the reputation and profitability of restaurants (Barbour, 1961; Wile, 1962). One of the factors found to influence consumer choice is whether these on-trade establishments have well-crafted wine lists and offer sommelier or wine steward services (Yüksel and Yüksel, 2002).

Food and wine pairings are often a priority for restaurants (Terblanche and Pentz, 2019). These pairings influence customer satisfaction with a restaurant’s service and, if done well, can increase consumers’ willingness to pay for the food and service provided (Paulsen et al., 2015), thereby increasing a restaurant’s profitability (Thompson, 2010). Kustos et al. (2019) conclude that effectively communicating wine attributes, production regions and preferred food pairings to consumers helps hospitality service providers in their marketing endeavors. As such, wine is important for the reputation of foodservice operators. A restaurant’s wine list can be used as a differentiation strategy to gain a competitive advantage (Berenguer et al., 2009), to enhance the prestige of the restaurant (Wansink et al., 2006), and to raise the status of the restaurant in the culinary hierarchy (Lane and Opazo, 2023). A wine list can also be a way of communicating the image of a restaurant, conveying attributes such as localness and typicality (Hill and Fountain, 2022).

The content of wine lists has received much attention, with focus placed on the selection of local and organic wines (Preszler and Schmit, 2009; Perla et al., 2014), conventional versus innovative wines and the breadth and length of a wine list (Berenguer et al., 2009), among others. Restaurants manage their wine lists in different ways, with varying approaches to selection, specialization and complementarity (Gil et al., 2009). The design of the list itself has also been studied, including through analyses of the order in which wines are presented (Corsi et al., 2012) and the use of dollar signs (Yang and Lynn, 2009).

In the hospitality industry, wine-related operations often require dedicated staff. In restaurants, sommeliers or wine stewards ensure proper wine storage and service (Howland, 2013). They act as cultural mediators, elaborating on their technical knowledge to translate the features of a wine in the context of an interpersonal interaction with a consumer (Tiefenbacher and Townsend, 2020). The empirical literature has documented a “sommelier effect” (Manske and Cordua, 2005) through which the technical skills of a sommelier aid in staff training, increase credibility and boost wine sales for an establishment.

Restaurants generate profit from wine sales. However, the strategies used to price wine are diverse and may be puzzling, leading establishments to determine pricing strategies often through trial and error (Pavesic, 1989; Kimes et al., 2012). A cost-based approach may be used to determine the price of wine in a restaurant. One simple rule of thumb is to apply a decreasing multiplier to the cost of a wine. An extension of this approach is to add an additional charge to the multiplier to cover overhead costs, such as glassware or labor. Demand-based pricing is possible, although assessing the price elasticity of demand for wine on-premise is difficult in practice (Jiang et al., 2016). Restaurants may also suggest good deals to patrons through the use of decoy pricing, such as by including a highly priced wine on a wine list to make other wines seem more affordable or by suggesting the second-cheapest wine to make consumers feel like they are getting a good deal without appearing cheap. The trend of consuming wine by the glass is growing among consumers seeking variety (Acuti et al., 2019). This has led to the emergence of new pricing strategies, such as pricing that covers the cost of the bottle when selling two glasses and dividing the price of the bottle on the wine list by the number of servings (Latour, 1994). The bring-your-own-bottle (BYOB) phenomenon, used by consumers as a risk-reduction strategy in the restaurant context (Bruwer and Campusano, 2018), often involves charging a corkage fee to partially offset the revenue lost by restaurants when consumers do not purchase from the restaurant’s wine list (Taylor and Barber, 2014).

The restaurant and tourism sectors are often intertwined with the wine and entertainment sectors. Combining food and wine can create a pleasant esthetic experience and enhance enjoyment (Koponen and Mustnen, 2020). When paired with food, wine is an important component of the gastronomic experience (Yüksel and Yüksel, 2002) and may also be a relevant dimension of eating out, even in a nongastronomic setting. Attention to glassware may also enhance this experience (Billing et al., 2008). Overall, Aune (2002) argues that in the restaurant industry, the boundaries between entertainment, education and the consumption of food and drinks are becoming increasingly blurred.

Wineries, wine museums and wine routes can be considered attractions, as they offer educational and gastronomic experiences (Farsani et al., 2019). These destinations contribute to a region’s attractiveness (Martin and Delmelle, 2021) and promote sustainable rural development (Oltea and Gabor, 2022). Torres et al. (2021) state that the wine industry is the only agribusiness sector that provides comprehensive and organized tourism services. Wine tourism also serves as a marketing strategy for wineries that can improve brand recognition (Torres and Kunc, 2016), promote loyalty (Bruwer et al., 2013) and increase perceived product quality (Gómez-Carmona et al., 2023). According to Brannon and Wiklund (2014), incorporating wine tourism strategies can drive wine sales and may become part of the business model. Tourist destinations that use wine as a key attraction often market their tourism and hospitality products and services through cellar door experiences to increase tourism demand (Getz and Brown, 2007). However, the opportunities for emerging wine regions (Duarte Alonso and Liu, 2010) and the economic benefits of wine tourism also come with an environmental impact (Sun and Drakeman, 2022).

The papers included in this special issue

This special issue on wine and hospitality consists of 15 articles that offer insights into the opportunities and challenges that lie at the intersection of the wine and hospitality sectors. The articles cover traditional as well as emerging wine regions. China receives considerable attention and is one of the main areas of research discussed in this issue.

Climate change may impact wine tourism, especially with regard to seasonality (Sottini et al., 2021) and changes in the wine landscape (Albuquerque et al., 2023), which raises concerns for tourism stakeholders. The wine industry is significantly affected by climate change, particularly in terms of short-term costs to winegrowers as they adapt to new climatic conditions (Ashenfelter and Storchmann, 2016). In their article, “From risk to reward: the strategic advantages of diversifying grape varietals,” Masset and Weisskopf (2024) investigate the impact of diverse grape varieties on reducing the variability of grape quantity and quality under erratic climatic conditions. Their study, which uses detailed data on Swiss wines over a period of highly variable climatic conditions and extreme climatic events, demonstrates that maintaining a broad grape variety portfolio is an effective solution for managing climate risk. This innovative strategy appears to be a promising approach to mitigating the effects of climate change in the wine industry.

As suggested by Kim and So (2022), tourism is strongly experiential in nature. Hospitality operators provide facilities and services that aim to create unique experiences for tourists. These unique experiences allow operators to differentiate themselves from growing numbers of competitors and to meet consumer demands (Sipe and Testa, 2018). The hospitality industry has embraced the experiential paradigm (Gallarza and De Diego Velasco, 2018) to achieve this goal. In their article, “The ability of experience design characteristics to elicit epistemic value, hedonic value, and visitor satisfaction in a wine museum,” Ponsignon et al. (2024) analyze the influence of experience design on visitor satisfaction in the context of a French wine museum. Their results highlight the importance of epistemic (i.e. learning) and hedonic (i.e. enjoyment) values as key determinants of a positive visitor experience: it is not only the content of the experience that matters but also how the content is communicated. In a similar vein, memorable tourism experiences capture the emotional and subjective responses of tourists (Kladou and Mavragani, 2015). This consumer-centric view is echoed by Wu et al. (2024) in the article “Wine tourism experiences of Chinese tourists: a tourist-centric perspective,” which identifies the salient characteristics of wine tourism experiences for Chinese tourists. In this study, the authors conduct both an analysis of online reviews written by domestic and outbound Chinese visitors and in-depth interviews. They then use topic modeling and sentiment analysis to perform an importance–performance analysis, which reveals two sets of salient characteristics concerning the wine tourism experiences of domestic and inbound Chinese wine tourists. The authors identify three common attributes: scenic views, wine tasting and purchasing, and wine knowledge. The qualitative analysis confirms that the services and appeal of a wine attraction are the primary motivating factors for Chinese tourists when engaging in wine tourism. In the era of digital transformation of consumer behavior, virtual wine experiences may also influence wine consumers’ interests in physical wine consumption and visit to wine regions. In their study of Uncorking the virtual frontier of wine experiences,” Gastaldello et al. (2024) studied the factors that determine the interests of virtual wine experiences based on an online questionnaire survey of wine consumers in Oregon and California and found that individuals with a high interest in virtual wine experience are normally associated with strong wine involvement either as wine consumers or as wine tourists. Therefore, wine businesses and wine tourism destinations could leverage virtual wine experiences to enhance the demand for their products and services.

Hospitality operators often offer add-on items, such as spa services or gym access, to increase profitability and improve the guest experience (Kim and Tanford, 2022). Pricing these add-ons can be difficult and counterintuitive (Lin, 2017). In “How do wineries price their wine experiences?” Gergaud and Livat (2024) use a hedonic pricing approach to model the price of winery visits, adopting an add-on perspective and focusing on the effect of the price of the most expensive wine sold by the winery, which is seen as the base product. They analyze a data set of over 1,000 winery experiences in Europe and find that the reputation of the winery and the length of the visit are important factors. They confirm that wine tourism is a territorial experience rooted in authenticity, as the price of tourism experiences increases with the local agglomeration of wineries.

The interconnectedness of tourism and hospitality stakeholders is critical for destination development (Timur and Getz, 2008). The typology of stakeholders involved in tourism clusters is large and diverse (Perkins et al., 2022), and intensifying relationships between these parties, including public stakeholders, can improve a destination’s tourism performance (Presenza and Cipollina, 2010). However, the effect of the spatial structure of tourism and hospitality stakeholders on the formation of tourism networks remains unknown. Gu et al. (2024) investigate this effect in their article, “Spatial structure and influencing factors of an emerging wine tourism network: a case study of the Ningxia wine region.” By focusing on an emerging Chinese wine region and combining survey data from wine tourists with 16 in-depth interviews with wine tourism stakeholders, this study identifies networks based on tourist movements. The study measures centrality, closeness centrality and betweenness centrality and highlights the roles that scenic areas play as central nodes, as these areas absorb most of the tourist flows. The authors also find that the government plays a critical role in the formation of networks. While this last finding makes sense in the Chinese context, as China has a highly centralized government, it also highlights that governments can play a role in supporting tourism businesses in general. Similarly, in “Delineating wine tourism experiences in Ningxia, China: a supply-demand perspective,” Zhan and Shi (2024) examine both the supply of wine tourism experiences and the behavioral intentions of visitors. They first conduct a qualitative analysis based on interviews with winery owners and managers and identify four key factors that define the experiences offered by Ningxia wineries: the tangible elements of the winery, including its location; the quality of service; the distinctive features of the brand; and the motivations of tourists, ranging from ordinary tourists who want to try something new to wine consumers who want to learn more about winemaking techniques. This qualitative exploration is combined with a quantitative analysis of a survey of wine tourists. A partial least squares structural equation modeling analysis indicates that the four factors mentioned above are positively related to satisfaction, which can influence loyalty and revisit intention. The analysis underscores the importance of transport infrastructure, existing accommodation, restaurants and other tourism facilities for the development of wine tourism. Networks and public support are found to be crucial for the success of a region’s wine tourism.

The interplay between hospitality and wine is subject to the role of the government. Tourism statistics have political implications (Pratt and Tolkach, 2018), and tourism taxes can impact inbound tourism demand (Adedoyin et al., 2023). Additionally, wine imports may be affected by anti-dumping duties. In “The impact of policy intervention on international wine demand,” Liu et al. (2024) assess the immediate impact of imposing anti-dumping tariffs on Australian wine imported into China. The authors estimate difference-in-differences models and demonstrate a significant and substantial decline in Australian exports of red, rose, white and sparkling wines to China. Their forecasts predict a continuing downward trend in 2023–2025. The authors’ counterfactual prediction, which assumes no anti-dumping duties, indicates a potential increase in demand for Australian wines.

Demand modeling and forecasting is a major area of tourism and hospitality research and is often associated with the study of tourism demand or hotel demand (Wu et al., 2017). Price forecasting and modeling has recently become a pressing topic due to global issues such as disease, terrorism and conflicts, as well as advancements in artificial intelligence techniques (Binesh et al., 2024). In “Point and interval forecasting for wine prices: an approach based on artificial intelligence,” Cui et al. (2024) use these new techniques to enhance the prediction of wine prices. This is particularly relevant for restaurant and hotel purchasing decisions and inventory management. The authors’ modeling framework is based on a hybrid kernel extreme learning machine (K-ELM), to which they add several modules that improve the accuracy and stability of the forecasts generated. The analysis, which uses Liv-Ex time series, shows that macroeconomics, financial stock indices and commodities have varying degrees of influence on wine price fluctuations. Additionally, the study finds that the dependence of fine wine prices on emerging markets, particularly on China, is greater than in the past.

Reputation is a valuable asset for wine and hospitality businesses, as it affects customer loyalty in the restaurant sector (Chang, 2013), improves hotel performance (Liu et al., 2022) and is a key determinant of wine prices (Benfratello et al., 2009). Although the Chinese wine industry is growing, it is still in its infancy (Jiao and Ouyang, 2019), and understanding how Chinese wineries establish their reputations remains a challenge. In “Understanding brand reputation: a case study of Chinese wineries,” Shi et al. (2024) analyze the reputation of Chinese wineries in relation to the quality and popularity of the wine regions in which they are based, government endorsement, label design and content, expert assessments and social media advertising. The authors also consider the moderating role of consumer wine knowledge. Based on survey data from 616 Chinese wine consumers, the study finds that collective reputation is not significant. Additionally, objective wine knowledge moderates the effect of expert opinion and social media advertising on individual brand reputation. The authors suggest that Chinese wineries can enhance their reputations by adopting consumer-centric approaches.

Hospitality operators are linked to tourism businesses, employees, local communities and suppliers in a complex network (Salihoğlu and Gezici, 2018). Suppliers provide information about the hospitality environment (Ragatz et al., 2002), and their integration into the restaurant industry allows for flexibility in meeting changes in demand (Odhiambo and Nassiuma, 2017). Suppliers’ quality attributes are also important. Moon et al. (2024) investigate these quality attributes in “A comparison of the importance of wine supplier quality attributes for on-premise and off-premise wine retail establishments.” Supplier attributes in the wine retail industry include product quality and availability, price competitiveness, delivery service, salesperson knowledge, reputation and relationship between suppliers and buyers. Using covariance-based structural equation modeling, the authors analyze survey data from 268 wine purchasing managers operating on-premise and off-premise establishments in Korea. The study shows that supplier quality attributes have an impact on the strategic and operational performance of establishments. However, the effect varies depending on the type of wine retailer. Improvements in supplier quality attributes are found to lead to better financial performance and greater satisfaction with suppliers. The study suggests that product quality is more critical for off-premise wine retailers than for on-premise wine retailers.

The quality of experience goods, such as wine and wine tourism experiences, is often uncertain prior to purchase (Santos et al., 2019). In this context, industry stakeholders may provide quality signals and cues, although these may not always be effective or persuasive (Neuninger et al., 2017). To improve consumers’ understanding of a product, industry governance may require specific cues to appear on the label, such as the sweetness scale created for Alsace wines. In “The double-edged effects of visualizing wine style: sweetness scale on wine label,” Luo et al. (2024) conduct two studies to investigate the effect of a mandatory visual cue on wine labels using a quasi-experimental between-subjects design. They find both positive and negative effects. While the visual sweetness scale increases purchase intention, it also reduces the willingness to pay of wine novices, who perceive a wine with a visual scale as being of lower quality than a wine with a textual scale.

Wine, like other gastronomic products, may elicit emotional responses from consumers (Ferrarini et al., 2010). Reported feelings toward wine vary depending on a consumer’s level of wine expertise (Coppin et al., 2021). Additionally, a positive mood has been shown to be associated with word-of-mouth intention (D’Ament et al., 2024). In “Exploring the influence of emotionality and expertise on online wine reviews: does greater knowledge lead to less review?” Qi et al. (2024) analyze the online review behaviors of wine consumers by combining a panel data analysis of 4,600,922 wine reviews published on Vivino.com with a structural equation modeling analysis of survey data obtained from 400 wine drinkers from the USA. The authors measure the emotions encompassed in reviews using the Evaluative Lexicon (Rocklage and Fazio, 2015), a natural linguistic processing tool, and find that emotionality is positively associated with online review behaviors, but that the effect of emotionality on review intention is moderated by wine expertise.

The marketing literature contains well-documented country-of-origin effects, which are significant for wine (Foroudi et al., 2020). These effects are related to preferences, purchasing behaviors and prices. These effects also apply to the hotel industry when a hotel’s brand image is associated with its brand origin (Lee et al., 2017). In “The influence of perceived country of origin image on Chinese consumers purchase intention of imported wine,” Zhou and Gao (2024) analyze the perceived quality of and purchase intentions concerning imported wine brands by linking the country-of-origin effect approach to the concepts of warmth and competence. The authors analyze survey data from 298 Chinese wine consumers and conduct a mediation analysis. The results reveal that both the perceived competence and perceived warmth of a wine brand’s country of origin are sequentially linked to the perceived competence and warmth of the wine brand, to its perceived quality, and to purchase intention. Attitude toward buying wine is further analyzed by Lee et al. (2024) in “The effects of motivation and prior knowledge on wine consumers’ decision-making process: using and extended model of goal-directed behavior.” The authors employ a structural equation modeling approach to examine the relationships among wine purchase motivation, ability to engage in wine purchase, anticipated emotions, attitude toward wine, prior wine knowledge and wine purchase desire and intention. The study’s analysis of survey data from South Korea reveals that the desire to purchase wine is primarily driven by emotions and attitude, which are in turn influenced by the social lives of consumers.