Pairing Co-Creation with Food and Wine Experiences—A Holistic Perspective of Tourist Experiences in Dão, a Portuguese Wine Region

Mariana Carvalho,Elisabeth Kastenholz,Maria João Carneiro

doi:10.3390/su132313416

Abstract

The literature increasingly recognises the value of food and wine tourism for destinations’ competitiveness. Given the scarcity of conceptual and empirical studies on co-creation within this field of special interest tourism, this paper aims to enhance the understanding of how visitors and supply agents co-create value in food and wine experiences, by analysing such experiences in the Portuguese wine region Dão. For this purpose, a qualitative study was undertaken, analysing visitors’ and tourism agents’ perceptions regarding five food and wine experiences: food and wine pairing, wine tasting with food pairing, harvesting, a culinary workshop and a wine workshop. The discourse obtained via in-depth semi-structured interviews from sixteen visitors and three supply agents was content analysed, supported by QSR NVivo 12. The results show that dimensions of the conceptually defined co-creation experience were, indeed, perceived in the visitors’ discourse, namely interaction (the most prominent in wine tasting and harvesting), active participation, engagement and personalization (the latter least reported). Sensorial engagement emerged from the discourse as an additional dimension that deserved attention. The agents’ perspective confirmed the importance of these dimensions in experience design. This paper identifies theoretical and managerial contributions for destination management organisations, wine tourism agents and marketers, as well as relevant paths for future research in this field.

Highlights

Food and wine tourism has become a focal element of tourists’ interests when travelling, arousing visitors’ curiosities, distinguishing territories, and adding value to the travel experience
Consistent with previous conceptual and empirical studies [20,43] that pointed to scarce empirical evidence of the role of co-creation in food and wine experiences, this study aims to fill this gap by showing how visitors co-create value in food and wine experiences in the Portuguese wine region of Dão, revealing the prominence of co-creation dimensions emerging from visitors’ perceptions of their experiences and suggesting ‘sensory engagement’ as a relevant additional dimension
This study provides evidence of the significance of personalization as a co-creation dimension, which seems to be not yet explored in literature on co-creation in food and wine experiences [20], and of insights on how this dimension may be developed in experience design [34]

Summary

Introduction

Food and wine tourism has become a focal element of tourists’ interests when travelling, arousing visitors’ curiosities, distinguishing territories, and adding value to the travel experience. Wine and gastronomy are intrinsically related and can result in a distinctive and competitive tourism product. 355) state that wine “can be considered part of the broader category of food tourism” and, visitors increasingly search for food and wine experiences when travelling [2], which suggests the growing evidence of a tourist market trend. Food and wine experiences are sensory-rich, involve travellers in a pleasurable and relaxing way and may contribute to memorability [3,4,5,6]. In rural wine destinations, experiences such as food and wine pairing, wine tasting, grape harvesting, wine festivals and wine-related workshops are emerging, complementing traditional visits to wineries and cellar doors [7,8].

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