A research event from the Department of Marketing on the evolving tourist behaviour at cellar doors.

Location: Moore 0-08

Speaker: Girish Prayag, Associate Professor of Marketing, University of Canterbury Business School, New Zealand

Abstract: 

Despite the increasing number of studies investigating tourist behaviour at cellar doors, empirical evidence on the influence of home based wine consumption habits and cellar door experiences on tourist expenditure is lacking. More importantly, existing studies fail to examine how pre-visit and on-site experiences at cellar doors impact (re)purchase of wine. Using the Awareness- Trial- Repurchase (ATR) hierarchy of effects as the conceptual lens, this study examines the link between consumption habits, consumer characteristics, on-site cellar door experience, customer satisfaction and expenditure in a situation where the wine is available for trial and (re)purchase. Data was collected from 2,297 domestic visitors via an on-site survey at cellar doors in Canada. The results show that wine tasting at the cellar door before purchase affects the decision to purchase wine and how much is spent. These factors produce the highest percentage change in visitor expenditure. Satisfaction with the on-site cellar door experience increases expenditure from 16% for light buyers to 45% for heavy buyers. The higher the frequency of wine consumption at home, the higher is the average expenditure at the cellar door. Findings align with the ATR framework and implications for cellar door experience management are offered.

Speaker bio: 

Girish Prayag is an Associate Professor of Marketing in the Business School at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He is also the Associate Head of Department for Management, Marketing and Entrepreneurship. Girish research mainly focusses on consumption experiences and his works have appeared in leading tourism and marketing journals. Dr Prayag is currently the Editor of Method and Practice for the journal Current Issues in Tourism.