Wine tourist valuation of information sources: the role of prior travel
International Journal of Wine Business Research
ISSN: 1751-1062
Article publication date: 20 November 2017
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine winery visitors’ use of information sources in making decisions regarding the choice of wineries to visit. Enrichment theory is used as a framework for determining how previous experience influences the decision on how much and what type of information individuals will use when planning a trip using wine tourism as the context for the research.
Design/methodology/approach
A visitor study was conducted at 23 wineries in the US Southeast. Data were collected from winery visitors using a structured self-administered questionnaire.
Findings
Results from 832 consumers indicate that an individual’s previous travel systematically influences the number and type of information sources that they will seek out when making future consumer decisions. Findings confirmed the hypothesized expectations about wine tourist information search behavior and help to partially explain the nature of bounded rationality in the case of tourists’ winery visit decisions.
Research limitations/implications
Because the study focused only on winery visitors in the US Southeast, the research results may lack generalizability.
Practical implications
These findings can assist winery owners and destinations with wineries in their promotional efforts. Of major importance is the finding that increases in experiential knowledge from prior travel are monotonically associated with increases in the number of information sources marked to be valuable in selecting a winery. The influence of experience is particularly dramatic in that the mean number of information sources marked to be valuable moves from a low of 2.5 to a high of 10.0 out of 16 as travel experience increases.
Originality/value
The study contributed significant and useful findings that advance the application of enrichment theory to wine tourism. Enrichment theory does not currently differentiate between types of knowledge that enrich a consumer’s ability to more easily encode and use new information. The current study confirms that experiential knowledge is an important knowledge construct in models of bounded rationality.
Keywords
Citation
Byrd, E.T., Canziani, B., Boles, J.S., Williamson, N.C. and Sonmez, S. (2017), "Wine tourist valuation of information sources: the role of prior travel", International Journal of Wine Business Research, Vol. 29 No. 4, pp. 416-433. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJWBR-04-2017-0020
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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