Abstract
Olive oil tourism is a recent development in the countries of the Mediterranean basin, but it is now spreading to other regions of the world. The main reasons people are choosing this special interest tourism (SIT) are to find out about the culture surrounding olive oil and to enjoy the whole host of activities related to the product. This has led to the creation of strong links between olive oil tourism and other types of special interest tourism. The studies undertaken thus far to characterise the profile of olive oil tourism’s demand, and its motivations, expectations and needs, have been limited and partial, focusing on specific cases. Therefore, this paper aims to take a closer look at the demand for olive oil tourism. Based on a survey of 609 visitors to olive oil mills in the south of Spain, olive oil tourists were segmented according to the type of trip and the olive oil tourism experience enjoyed during the trip, using a two-step cluster analysis. The results obtained enabled us to identify four segments with well-differentiated behaviours, which will help stakeholders, policy makers and destination managers to reach decisions, with a view to adapting their product to the expectations and needs of potential customers.
Highlights
IntroductionOlive oil tourism (hereinafter referred to as OOT) is an emerging type of tourism that has been gradually developing for just over a decade, mainly in rural areas where olives are the predominant crop [1]
Olive oil tourism is an emerging type of tourism that has been gradually developing for just over a decade, mainly in rural areas where olives are the predominant crop [1]
The main purpose of this paper is to examine in greater depth the profile of demand for OOT, as well as the main motivations, needs and interests of demand when it comes to this type of travel, especially with regard to characterising the olive oil tourism experience
Summary
Olive oil tourism (hereinafter referred to as OOT) is an emerging type of tourism that has been gradually developing for just over a decade, mainly in rural areas where olives are the predominant crop [1]. OOT provides an opportunity for tourists and visitors to learn all about the culture surrounding olive oil [3] It provides olive oil producers, as well as other companies associated with this agri-food activity, with the chance to position their brand and, above all, to increase the competitiveness of traditional olive growing, by reducing costs and increasing loyalty, and through incremental differentiation [4]. For these companies, OOT is certainly a collateral or complementary activity, but it can be very important in term of boosting their main activity—making an olive mill or olive growing estate more competitive— by reducing the effects of seasonality, establishing entry barriers by means of singularization, and through establishing customer loyalty [5]
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