Wine Tourism Around the World

Rating:
Summary: Lack of integration lets potentially useful book down
Review: The editors make a great case for the development of wine tourism strategies at the winery, industry, regional and country level. In the introduction the authors note the importance of wine tourism for increasing consumer exposure to wine, building brand awareness, increased margins, a source of marketing intelligence and providing a means of educating consumers about wine. The authors also highlight the role of wine related tourism has played in introducing new consumers to `Old' and `New' world wine regions, and also note its role in building (or re-building) regional identity in Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. This last point is particularly important given the recent findings by Areni, Duhan, and Keicker (1999) who found that an unknown or poorly viewed region could not effectively market itself using traditional point-of-sale or advertising strategies. The authors of the book provide a way out for a new or struggling wine region by arguing that wine tourism may provide a means by which consumers can reduce the risk of purchasing an unknown wine. Importantly, they note that the production of quality wine is still critical in winning over the consumer and that tourism activities will not provide a panacea for regions with unknown or poor reputations.

The book's greatest asset (and weakness) is it diversity. Combining the experiences of researchers from Australia, Canada, England, France, New Zealand, South Africa and the USA, the reader is treated to a global overview of wine tourism and the approaches different regions and countries have taken to developing wine tourism strategies. From case studies of regions / countries such as Texas, Napa Valley, Australia, France, and South Africa, to broader topics such as consumer behavior, network development, policy issues and product development, the book provides the reader with an in-depth introduction to the field of wine tourism.

Frochot's chapter on French wine tourism highlights the critical role of other tourism products such as history, environment, food, and culture and makes the important point that few people visit a wine region primarily or just to taste wine. Regions attract people by providing a range of experiences that add up to a `total service offering' (Gronroos, 1996). This chapter has implications for New World regions that may not be able to offer this level of experience. Dodd's chapter on increasing cellar door sales makes links with broader tourism and marketing literature in order to explain what influences cellar door visitors to purchase wine both during and after their visit. The strength of Dodd's approach is that by combining his own research with the wider literature to interpret his data. In doing so he highlights the importance of repeat visits, loyal customers and word-of-mouth referrals to a winery and region.

The chapter by Hall et al on regional development argues for the development of networks between wineries, tourism organizations, and other tourism attractions such as food producers and local government. It is a pity that they did not explore the mechanisms by which these networks could be formed in more detail. Like Dodd and Frochot, the importance of relationship marketing strategies that highlight the need to form alliances in order to provide customers with a total experience is apparent (although not made by the authors). The authors make a case for government to become more proactive in forming networks and providing research and information to the wineries on the benefits of wine tourism. However, this idea needs a more critical approach. For example early on in the book the same authors note that government has played a relatively minor role in New Zealand (compared to Australia) yet New Zealand has developed a number of successful wine tourism routes. The Milawa gourmet food route in Australia was also developed without significant help from government. In this case the vision and drive of Brown Brothers CEO Ross Brown has seen it become a reality. Finally the chapter on New Zealand wine tourism provides a good analysis of the consumer profiles of New Zealand visitors, although it is a pity that these were not integrated more closely with the chapter by Dodd as well as literature on consumer behavior and marketing.

Any book that contains a diverse range of chapters is always going to suffer from a lack of direction and cohesiveness. Whilst the diversity is a strength, it is also a weakness. The case studies are not fully integrated with the chapters on more general marketing and strategy issues (with the exception of Dodd), nor is the role of the cases made clear. The quality of the case studies also varies from the depth and integration of Dodd and Frochot to the less developed chapters on South Africa and a chapter on Vasse Felix that appears to be little more than an advertisement for the winery (although it had the potential to be so much more). The chapters also need to have a summary that highlights major points and lessons for practitioners. A final integrating chapter would also have been useful. Whilst the final chapter attempts to do so, I believe another chapter bringing together the various experiences around the world and drawing out key lessons would have been a valuable end to this book. The current structure suggests that the book is perhaps intended for an academic audience as opposed to a practitioner one (although I believe that this was not the intention). This book also suggests that the field is emerging as one worthy of study and as such it needs to find some direction. One way of doing this would be to integrate the findings with the general literature on wine marketing, services and relationship marketing, and business strategy. This approach would provide the authors with the means to integrate all their diverse data into a coherent whole that would highlight the importance of relationship marketing strategies in developing a sustainable and successful wine tourism strategy.

Michael Beverland, Director Wine Business Research, Edith Cowan University, Australia

Rating:
Summary: Lack of integration lets potentially useful book down
Review: The editors make a great case for the development of wine tourism strategies at the winery, industry, regional and country level. In the introduction the authors note the importance of wine tourism for increasing consumer exposure to wine, building brand awareness, increased margins, a source of marketing intelligence and providing a means of educating consumers about wine. The authors also highlight the role of wine related tourism has played in introducing new consumers to 'Old' and 'New' world wine regions, and also note its role in building (or re-building) regional identity in Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. This last point is particularly important given the recent findings by Areni, Duhan, and Keicker (1999) who found that an unknown or poorly viewed region could not effectively market itself using traditional point-of-sale or advertising strategies. The authors of the book provide a way out for a new or struggling wine region by arguing that wine tourism may provide a means by which consumers can reduce the risk of purchasing an unknown wine. Importantly, they note that the production of quality wine is still critical in winning over the consumer and that tourism activities will not provide a panacea for regions with unknown or poor reputations.

The book's greatest asset (and weakness) is it diversity. Combining the experiences of researchers from Australia, Canada, England, France, New Zealand, South Africa and the USA, the reader is treated to a global overview of wine tourism and the approaches different regions and countries have taken to developing wine tourism strategies. From case studies of regions / countries such as Texas, Napa Valley, Australia, France, and South Africa, to broader topics such as consumer behavior, network development, policy issues and product development, the book provides the reader with an in-depth introduction to the field of wine tourism.

Frochot's chapter on French wine tourism highlights the critical role of other tourism products such as history, environment, food, and culture and makes the important point that few people visit a wine region primarily or just to taste wine. Regions attract people by providing a range of experiences that add up to a 'total service offering' (Gronroos, 1996). This chapter has implications for New World regions that may not be able to offer this level of experience. Dodd's chapter on increasing cellar door sales makes links with broader tourism and marketing literature in order to explain what influences cellar door visitors to purchase wine both during and after their visit. The strength of Dodd's approach is that by combining his own research with the wider literature to interpret his data. In doing so he highlights the importance of repeat visits, loyal customers and word-of-mouth referrals to a winery and region.

The chapter by Hall et al on regional development argues for the development of networks between wineries, tourism organizations, and other tourism attractions such as food producers and local government. It is a pity that they did not explore the mechanisms by which these networks could be formed in more detail. Like Dodd and Frochot, the importance of relationship marketing strategies that highlight the need to form alliances in order to provide customers with a total experience is apparent (although not made by the authors). The authors make a case for government to become more proactive in forming networks and providing research and information to the wineries on the benefits of wine tourism. However, this idea needs a more critical approach. For example early on in the book the same authors note that government has played a relatively minor role in New Zealand (compared to Australia) yet New Zealand has developed a number of successful wine tourism routes. The Milawa gourmet food route in Australia was also developed without significant help from government. In this case the vision and drive of Brown Brothers CEO Ross Brown has seen it become a reality. Finally the chapter on New Zealand wine tourism provides a good analysis of the consumer profiles of New Zealand visitors, although it is a pity that these were not integrated more closely with the chapter by Dodd as well as literature on consumer behavior and marketing.

Any book that contains a diverse range of chapters is always going to suffer from a lack of direction and cohesiveness. Whilst the diversity is a strength, it is also a weakness. The case studies are not fully integrated with the chapters on more general marketing and strategy issues (with the exception of Dodd), nor is the role of the cases made clear. The quality of the case studies also varies from the depth and integration of Dodd and Frochot to the less developed chapters on South Africa and a chapter on Vasse Felix that appears to be little more than an advertisement for the winery (although it had the potential to be so much more). The chapters also need to have a summary that highlights major points and lessons for practitioners. A final integrating chapter would also have been useful. Whilst the final chapter attempts to do so, I believe another chapter bringing together the various experiences around the world and drawing out key lessons would have been a valuable end to this book. The current structure suggests that the book is perhaps intended for an academic audience as opposed to a practitioner one (although I believe that this was not the intention). This book also suggests that the field is emerging as one worthy of study and as such it needs to find some direction. One way of doing this would be to integrate the findings with the general literature on wine marketing, services and relationship marketing, and business strategy. This approach would provide the authors with the means to integrate all their diverse data into a coherent whole that would highlight the importance of relationship marketing strategies in developing a sustainable and successful wine tourism strategy.

Michael Beverland, Director Wine Business Research, Edith Cowan University, Australia