A model of tourism destination brand equity: The case of wine tourism destinations in Spain

Abstract

The extant tourism literature contains few studies that have examined brand equity and its determining factors in the wine tourism research area. This paper aims to address this gap in the existing literature by proposing a model for the influence of the designation of origin (DO) brand image and the destination image on the brand equity of wine tourism destinations and examining these effects on two stakeholder groups, winery managers and winery visitors. Using a survey questionnaire that was completed by 219 managers and 598 visitors and a partial least squares-based multi-group analysis, the results demonstrate that the effects of the two influential factors varied between the stakeholder groups. The research also confirmed that overall, managers evaluate wine tourism destination brand equity, DO brand image and destination image more positively than visitors do.