Is Wine Tourism a Niche Tourism? Antecedents and Consequences of Wine as a Niche Tourism, a Conceptual Model

Abstract

Tourism is a phenomenon that moves millions of people around the world, taking as a major driver of the global economy. Every year, much due to the frequent changes in the tourism environment, fosters competition between and within tourist destinations. In specific, the wine tourism activity involves the participation of a certain group of people, called wine tourists, who look for experiences related to wines and wineries at wine tourism destinations. Trends in global tourism demand suggest the emergence of sophisticated consumers looking for new, different and specific tourist experiences. In such context, niche marketing seems a relevant response to market dynamics. Wine tourism activities consist of, above all, wine tastings and cellar, wine house and wine museum visits. Currently, and in the future, wine tourism has provided and boosted the creation of genuine and unique tourist experiences, more and more differentiated tailor-made. This study discusses the increasing phenomena of wine tourism and the relationship marketing perspective associated to specific tourism contexts. Based in the literature review, we propose a model that connects Antecedentes: Wine Knowledge (WK) e Prior Involvement (PI) Experience: Emotions (E), Consequences: Involvement Enhancement (IE) e Word of Mouth (WOM). A future study should include emotional factors. The new vogue of wine tourism forces us to challenge and re-visit the power relationships that exist within contemporary tourism and the host–guest relationship. As an interdisciplinary approach, this research contributes positively to the development of theory in relationship marketing and tourism contexts in wine management (theoretical implications). At the end, guidelines for future work will be presented.