The Impact of Tourism Strategies and Regional Factors on Wine Tourism Performance: Bordeaux vs. Mendoza, Mainz, Florence, Porto and Cape Town

Abstract

Purpose: Wineries face an increasing need to add value to wine tourism experiences. The goal of this study is to measure the performance of wine tourism business in several wine regions of the world and explain how performance correlates with winery characteristics and the regional environment. We isolate four explanatory dimensions of performance: 1) investments in tourism, 2) products/services offered, 3) marketing strategies, as well as 4) external factors (e.g. regional capital).

Design: Based on an international survey launched by the Great Wine Capitals Global Network, we collected 186 surveys from six wine regions of the world: Bordeaux, Mendoza, Mainz, Florence, Porto and Cape Town. We analyze the structure of wine tourism activities, top sources of profits, wine tourism investments and other external contributing factors. We use a multiple regression analysis to show how the above four dimensions contribute to the performance of wine tourism, contrasting Bordeaux with the other regions.

Findings: We provide some preliminary answers for explaining wine tourism performance. The Bordeaux region puts a greater emphasis on the cultural and educational aspect of the wine experience based on the region’s fame and historical capital. Other regions view their profitability originating more from a holistic approach, which encompasses wine tasting, hospitality and building a long-term relationship with the visitor. Interestingly, we find that the best performers in the Bordeaux region differentiate themselves by using strategies unique to the other group of regions, and vice versa.

Practical implications: We have made the first step in creating quality and performance benchmarks in wine tourism and our study contributes to the understanding of the success factors and other conditioning regional factors.

Keywords: tourism, performance, Bordeaux, Mendoza , Mainz, Florence, Porto, Cape Town

JEL Classification: L66, L79