Description
To investigate differences among winery visitors of different age groups in New Zealand,
as well as the commercial potential of these groups.
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Does age matter? How age influences the winery experience
Abel D. Alonso Rick A. Fraser David A. Cohen
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Abel D. Alonso Rick A. Fraser David A. Cohen, (2007),"Does age matter? How age influences the winery
experience", International J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 1 Iss 2 pp. 131 - 139
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Nelson Barber, Barbara A. Almanza, J anis R. Donovan, (2006),"Motivational factors of gender, income and
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Does age matter? How age
in?uences the winery experience
Abel D. Alonso
School of Marketing Tourism and Leisure, Edith Cowan University,
Joondalup, Western Australia, and
Rick A. Fraser and David A. Cohen
Commerce Division, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand
Abstract
Purpose – To investigate differences among winery visitors of different age groups in New Zealand,
as well as the commercial potential of these groups.
Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was designed to obtain information of winery
visitors, including demographic characteristics and their expenditure at the winery. A total of
43 wineries located in all wine regions of New Zealand accepted the invitation to participate in this
study by distributing questionnaires in their facilities. In all, 609 usable responses were obtained.
Findings – The study provides information about winery visitors in New Zealand, and con?rms
clear differences among different age groups in several dimensions, including their winery
expenditures.
Research limitations/implications – One potential limitation is that because several participating
wineries were much larger in physical size and restaurant seating, the percentage of responses
obtained in this study might have been disproportionately large, or unrepresentatively small.
Practical implications – The overall ?ndings may have signi?cant implications for the wine and
wine tourism industries, and might be bene?cial for wineries in their efforts of providing a more
valuable experience for wine tourists.
Originality/value – This exploratory study provides new and practical insights of the winery
experience in the New Zealand context, an area where very limited research has been conducted.
Keywords Wines, Age groups, Tourism, New Zealand
Paper type Research paper
Introduction and literature review
While New Zealand wine production only represents 1 percent of total production
worldwide (MAF, 2003), the achievements of the wine industry in this country in terms
of growth in the last decade are very impressive. The large increase in the number of
wineries, from 175 in 1993 to 516 in 2005, and hectares planted of grapes from 4,880 in
1990 to 17,809 in 2004 (MAF, 2003; Wine Institute of New Zealand, 2004, 2005) provide
evidence of such a consistent growth. Reports indicating a 14-fold increase in the
number of international wine tourists in New Zealand, rising from 11,220 visitors in
1997 to 165,048 in 2005 (Tourism Research Council, 2006), and that the large majority
(85 percent) of wine production in this country is in the hands of foreign ownership
(Collins, 2004) illustrate the great interest among international wine and wine tourism
stakeholders.
Interest in wines is also developing among New Zealand consumers, with domestic
wine consumption increasing from 17.6 to 21.8 l per capita between 1994 and 2005
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1750-6182.htm
Impact of age on
the winery
experience
131
Received April 2006
Revised November 2006
Accepted February 2007
International Journal of Culture,
Tourism and Hospitality Research
Vol. 1 No. 2, 2007
pp. 131-139
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1750-6182
DOI 10.1108/17506180710751678
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(Rabobank, 2006; Beer Wine and Spirits Council, 2006). Wine production forecasts
indicating a signi?cant rise in exports (Wine Institute of New Zealand, 2005;
Rabobank, 2006) suggest increasing opportunities in the future for those involved in
this industry, including wine tourism. Moreover, the continuous growth of the tourism
and hospitality industries in New Zealand is an important factor contributing to the
further development of wine tourism. The increase in international visitors forecast for
the next years (Tourism Research Council, 2006), and that of the hospitality industry in
number of facilities being open and employees working full-time in this industry
(Statistics New Zealand, 1997, 1999, 2005), further demonstrate the potential for future
business opportunities.
Several researchers discuss the concept of wine tourism from a number of
dimensions, both in New Zealand (Mitchell, 1999; Hall et al., 2000; Alonso, 2005), and
internationally (Dodd, 1995; Carlsen and Dowling, 1999; Charters and Ali-Knight, 2000,
2002). The winery experience involves an interaction between the visitor, the winery,
and what the visitor obtains or gains from the experience in terms of product and
service. Within this context, one important dimension that prior studies investigate is
how to identify the winery visitor or wine tourist. Charters and Ali-Knight (2002, p. 312)
note: “. . . there is no single, stereotypical wine tourist- nor therefore, a unilateral
de?nition of him or her.”
Researchers, however, use different elements to segment or wine tourists into
sub-groups. For example, some studies pro?le these visitors applying characteristics
that are part of consumer behavior research (Kotler et al., 1999; Wedel and Kamakura,
2000). A number of authors refer to a demographic approach (Howley and van
Westering, 1998; Macionis and Cambourne, 1998; Nixon, 1998; SATC, 1997, in Charters
and Ali-Knight, 2002; Jolley, 2002; Bruwer, 2004; Tassiopoulos et al., 2004). The
demographic approach includes the use of such variables as age, level of education,
occupation, level of wine knowledge, income (Dodd and Bigotte, 1997), wine interest,
wine cellaring behavior, and wine club participation (Mitchell et al., 2000; Mitchell and
Hall, 2001).
Several studies also sort winery visitors into categories, including the professional,
the impassioned neophyte, the hanger-on, and the drinker (Corigliano, 1996, in Mitchell
et al., 2000), or the young optimists, traditional family life, socially aware, and visible
achievers (Macionis and Cambourne, 1998). Jago et al. (2000) introduce in their study
the serious wine tourists; these are identi?able according to the planning of the visit,
size of winery, main reason for visit, and length of stay in the wine region. Charters and
Ali-Knight (2002) use motivating factors and goals of winery visitors, including their
wine knowledge and interest in wine to identify the wine lover, the connoisseur, the
wine interested, and the wine novice.
Another approach researchers use to study winery visitors involves
psychographics (Plog, 1991), and emphasizes on people’s attitudes, lifestyles and
values (Charters and Ali-Knight, 2002). Dodd (2000) discusses psychographics
when he studies the level of product and purchase involvement among winery
visitors. Dodd and Gustafson (1997), and Mitchell et al. (2000) also explore winery
visitors’ psychographic pro?les using the concept of psychographics. However, limited
published information on the psychographic pro?le of winery visitors is available
(Mitchell et al., 2000; Charters and Ali-Knight, 2002).
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One of the main potential bene?ts of segmenting and pro?ling wine tourists is
undoubtedly the identi?cation of visitor groups that may offer higher commercial
value for wineries. A limited number of researchers investigate this dimension among
New Zealand wine tourists. Mitchell and Hall (2001) report gender differences of
winery visitors, identifying a tendency among female winery visitors to make post
winery visit wine purchases. Mitchell’s (2002) ?ndings suggest clear differences among
groups of winery visitors according to their generation, namely between Baby
Boomers, individuals born between 1946 and 1960, and those individuals that belong to
the Generation X group, or born between 1961 and 1974. These differences include
Baby Boomers’ higher wine knowledge, daily wine consumption, monthly wine
purchases and higher number of bottles of wine cellared than their Generation X
counterparts.
Overall, however, information available about wine tourists and the winery
experience is rather limited (Getz, 2000; Beames, 2003; Getz and Brown, 2004). This lack
of information also includes research studies investigating the potential commercial
value of different visitor groups. This study explores this particular dimension further
and investigates potential differences among three different age groups of wine tourists.
Method
Owing to time and budget constraints limiting the ability to travel to wine regions
nationwide to interview winery visitors, this study uses a predominantly quantitative
approach in the form of a questionnaire. The questionnaire also includes a qualitative
component in the form of open-ended questions and space for comments as a
complement to gain alternative insights of respondents’ answers. The questionnaire
design aims to obtain information about visitors’ winery experience, including their
involvement with wine, as well as their consumption and expenditure patterns while at
the winery and to measure these dimensions as applicable.
Contact established with a total of 110 New Zealand winery owners from all wine
regions in New Zealand allowed for inviting the owners of these businesses to
participate in this study. Owners’ involvement was mainly in the form of receiving and
distributing questionnaires among their visitors. Of all contacted businesses,
43 (39.1 percent) agreed to participate in the study. These businesses received a
total of 1,777 questionnaires. The direct distribution of 681 questionnaires among ?ve
of the 43 participating wineries located near the researcher’s university provided
a complement to the data collection effort. The belief that a direct distribution approach
encourages more responses from winery visitors was a decisive factor in choosing this
approach.
To collect the data, the researcher chose the months between December 2003 and
April 2004, as these months appear to be popular among winery visitors. This decision
is partly in accord with previous wine tourism studies in New Zealand (Mitchell, 1999)
that suggest that winery visitors favor the summer months (January through March)
most. From all 2,458 distributed questionnaires, the receipt of 609 usable responses
represents a response rate of 25 percent.
The present study uses several statistical tools to analyze the data collected,
including cross tabulations to assess the level and signi?cance of any relationships
with chi-square (x
2
) and Cramer’s V statistics, and Scheffe´ tests run in conjunction
with one-way ANOVA to determine inter-group differences.
Impact of age on
the winery
experience
133
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What is the impact of age on the winery experience? Results
Respondents are grouped into three different age categories: the ?rst includes visitors
35 years old and below (179 or 29.4 percent), the second group includes those between
36 and 55 years old (216 or 35.5 percent), and the third those 56 years of age and above
(194 or 31.9 percent). The main reason to group visitors as noted above is to obtain
three similar groups to draw comparisons from, without excluding any respondents
that do not ?t into any particular generational categories, that is, Generation Xers and
Baby Boomers. The data for 20 respondents (3.3 percent) are excluded from the
analyses due to respondents’ omission.
Respondents’ wine knowledge is the ?rst variable investigated. Wine knowledge is
measured using an interval scale, where a one indicates no wine knowledge at all and a
seven extensive knowledge. Respondents 56 years of age and older report having
greater wine knowledge than younger respondents, particularly those aged 35 and
below. Clearly, age and the passage of time may be contributing factors in facilitating
learning and processing information about wines.
Further analysis of wine knowledge includes gender effects and indicates that
111 females (36.2 percent) are below the age of 36, as compared to 65 (23.8 percent) of
males, but 119 (43.6 percent) males are older than 55 years, and only 71 (23.1 percent) in
this age group are females. The resulting Pearson’s x
2
(2,n¼580)
¼ 28.309 ( p ¼ 0.000)
suggests a statistically signi?cant difference between genders and age. Females are
over-represented in the youngest age group and under-represented in the oldest
age group. Further, male visitors’ age appears to be a factor determining their longer
interest in wine as compared to their female counterparts. Further comparisons that
consist in dividing groups into domestic and international, their age and wine
knowledge indicate no signi?cant differences among domestic visitors. However,
overseas respondents of ages 56 and above indicate a clearly higher wine knowledge
than the other age groups. Testing with Scheffe´ post hoc ( p ¼ 0.000) further con?rms
this difference.
Wine involvement is measured among the three age groups using the areas shown
in Table I. A larger percentage of visitors of ages 56 and above consume more wine
per week, purchase more wine bottles per month, and their interest in wines appears to
be for a longer period of time than the other age groups. In this last case, however,
while using x
2
suggests a statistically signi?cant relationship between age and years
interested in wine, once again the age of the participants may be a contributing factor
in?uencing the outcome of the number of years of their ongoing interest in wine.
When the three age groups of respondents are compared to their respective levels of
expenditures at the winery, the result suggests a statistically signi?cant difference
Areas
a
Age group
a
n x
2
df
Signi?cance
( p value)
More glasses of wine consumed per week (11 þ ) 3 547 30.200 4 0.000
More bottles purchased per month (11 þ ) 3 553 43.268 4 0.000
More years interested in wine (11 þ years) 3 519 136.189 2 0.000
More wine books owned (6 þ ) 2 332 6.949 2 0.031
Note:
a
Indicates group with highest level of involvement, where 1 ¼ ages 35 and below, 2 ¼ ages
36-55, and 3 ¼ ages 56 and above
Table I.
Relationships for age
groups and areas of wine
involvement
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between these variables. Perhaps, most importantly, a much higher percentage of
individuals of ages 35 and below report making minimal expenditures in the range
from $NZ 0 and $NZ 13, while at the other end, those aged 56 and above for the most
part indicate spending above $NZ 13. The value of x
2
(4,n¼492)
¼ 18.292, ( p ¼ 0.001)
con?rms a relationship between age and expenditures at the winery. As illustrated in
Table II, further analysis between the age groups and items they purchase during the
winery visit indicate that respondents of ages 35 and below mainly favor a glass of
wine, with a meal, and one or two bottles of wine. Visitors between the ages of 36 and
55 also favor similar items, with six of them additionally choosing accommodation as
one of their purchases. In contrast, respondents of ages 56 and above mainly prefer a
glass of wine, a meal, two bottles of wine, and a snack. The product preferences of this
group of visitors suggest that they are more involved with food at the winery, resulting
in their higher expenditure, as compared to visitors below the age of 56.
An additional area in this study compares levels of education with both age groups.
The result of Pearson x
2
(4,n¼567)
¼ 33.539, ( p ¼ 0.000), suggests a statistically
signi?cant relationship between age and level of education. A larger percentage of
respondents of ages 35 and below hold a university degree in comparison to the other
two groups, particularly to respondents of ages between 36 and 55. At the higher end, a
larger percentage of respondents of ages 56 and above hold only a primary or high
school quali?cation.
Comparing age groups and household income con?rms a statistically signi?cant
relationship between these, with Pearson’s x
2
(4,n¼520)
¼ 9.887, ( p ¼ 0.042).
Respondents of ages between 36 and 55 years earn the highest incomes, while those
of ages 35 and below form the second highest group of earners. The higher percentages
of visitors of ages 35 and below with more educational attainment, in addition to their
reported higher incomes, are indications that this group of younger, more educated,
and wealthier wine tourists may become an important visitor segment for wineries in
the future. Moreover, this group of wealthier and more highly educated individuals
may be able to afford greater involvement with wine in the future, and could become an
alternative to such groups as those branded Baby Boomers, and Generation Xers, that
this study discusses earlier (Mitchell, 2002).
In contrast, respondents of ages 56 and above earn lower incomes. However, the fact
that 56.5 percent of these visitors earn above $NZ 60,000 further supports the view that
this group of individuals have the time and disposable income to spend. In addition,
107 (55.2 percent) respondents over the age of 55 are retirees. A total of 51 (47.7 percent)
Age 35 or less Age 36-55 Age 56 þ Overall
Categories f Percent f Percent f Percent f Percent
A glass of wine 55 23.9 94 40.9 81 35.2 230 37.8
A meal 45 21.5 88 42.1 76 36.4 209 34.3
2 þ bottles of wine for my cellar 38 24.1 63 39.9 57 36.1 158 25.9
1 bottle of wine for my cellar 36 31.0 48 41.4 32 27.6 116 19.0
Snack 22 22.9 35 36.5 39 40.6 96 15.8
Souvenirs 8 29.6 15 55.6 4 14.8 27 4.4
Accommodation 2 22.2 6 66.7 1 11.1 9 1.5
Table II.
Winery consumption
patterns of different age
groups
Impact of age on
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135
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of these visitors earn incomes below $NZ 60,000, and of these, 34 (66.7 percent) earn
between $NZ 30,000 and $NZ 60,000. However, even the majority of these respondents
(19 or 56 percent) still indicate spending at least $NZ 14 during their visit. These results
suggest that wineries should be aware that segments of visitors earning higher
incomes might not necessarily translate into higher expenditures. Consequently,
business operators should also pay attention to less wealthy segments that may have
at least similar commercial potential as those earning higher incomes. The question
here may revolve around what alternatives are there for these individuals to spend
their retirement income on. From a business perspective, the group of visitors over
55 years of age has commercial potential for wineries. In addition, while retirees’
incomes may appear modest, their winery expenditures may re?ect a greater
utilization of funds that income ?gures do not indicate.
Limitations
Several limitations must be acknowledged in this study. For example, the sample of
participating wineries open to the public, 27 (63 percent) in the South Island and
16 (37 percent) in the North Island, is not representative of the geographic distribution
of wineries in New Zealand at the time of conducting this study, namely 55 percent in
the North Island versus 45 percent in the South Island. In addition, the predominantly
quantitative approach of the data collection over a qualitative approach in this study
may limit the ability to capture important elements that are unique of the qualitative
approach. Finally, some individuals completing the questionnaires may be more
sympathetic to the purpose of this study, or may be from a particular age group that
has more time to participate or complete questionnaires as opposed to other respondent
groups. As a result, one particular group of visitors may be dominant in terms of
numbers of questionnaires completed, potentially leading to further distortions in the
representativeness of the sample.
Conclusions and further research
The overall results indicate several clear differences among the age groups explored,
notably in terms of their involvement with wine and expenditures they incur at the
winery. In comparison to the other age groups, a larger percentage of respondents of
ages 56 and above earn $NZ 60,000 and below. However, members of this group may
still have more disposable income to spend, for example, in the form of life savings,
than other segments of winery visitors. Further, some respondents of ages 56 and
above may be enjoying retirement, or at least may have fewer family or professional
commitments. Hence, a lower income after retirement does not seem to limit their level
of wine involvement, nor affect the way they spend at the winery. Moreover, a higher
percentage of these visitors indicate spending more under the middle category of
expenditures at the winery, that is, above $NZ 13, than the other age groups. The level
of expenditure at the winery of visitors of ages 56 and above suggests their commercial
potential, and that wineries might want to pay more attention to this group.
In contrast, visitors of ages 35 and below may currently have less commercial
potential than other more mature visitor groups. However, the fact that they earn
higher incomes, are more educated and due to their age still have more time ahead of
them to gain wine knowledge and increase their involvement with wines suggests their
future potential.
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A ?nal note regards several avenues for future research. The potential effects of
changes in the demographic make-up of winery visitors, that is, with the af?uence of
younger, more educated and wealthier individuals that this study suggests merit
future investigation. For example, the younger more af?uent and educated groups’
expenditure patterns may not follow over time the patterns of the older respondent
groups in this study. Further, the increase in wine consumption in New Zealand,
coupled with the increasing number of international visitors to this country present
opportunities and challenges for both wineries and the wine industry. Future research
needs to explore these issues and developments as they could have several implications
for wineries and the wine industry in terms of the choices consumers and winery
visitors make about wines, their expenditure and level of consumption. While wineries
may continue focusing on an ever-thirstier overseas market for New Zealand wines,
rising consumption levels in this country should not go unnoticed nor should they be
underestimated. Future studies could examine this potential scenario.
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Corresponding author
Abel D. Alonso can be contacted at: [email protected]
Impact of age on
the winery
experience
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doc_330763637.pdf
To investigate differences among winery visitors of different age groups in New Zealand,
as well as the commercial potential of these groups.
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Does age matter? How age influences the winery experience
Abel D. Alonso Rick A. Fraser David A. Cohen
Article information:
To cite this document:
Abel D. Alonso Rick A. Fraser David A. Cohen, (2007),"Does age matter? How age influences the winery
experience", International J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 1 Iss 2 pp. 131 - 139
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Nelson Barber, Barbara A. Almanza, J anis R. Donovan, (2006),"Motivational factors of gender, income and
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Does age matter? How age
in?uences the winery experience
Abel D. Alonso
School of Marketing Tourism and Leisure, Edith Cowan University,
Joondalup, Western Australia, and
Rick A. Fraser and David A. Cohen
Commerce Division, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand
Abstract
Purpose – To investigate differences among winery visitors of different age groups in New Zealand,
as well as the commercial potential of these groups.
Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was designed to obtain information of winery
visitors, including demographic characteristics and their expenditure at the winery. A total of
43 wineries located in all wine regions of New Zealand accepted the invitation to participate in this
study by distributing questionnaires in their facilities. In all, 609 usable responses were obtained.
Findings – The study provides information about winery visitors in New Zealand, and con?rms
clear differences among different age groups in several dimensions, including their winery
expenditures.
Research limitations/implications – One potential limitation is that because several participating
wineries were much larger in physical size and restaurant seating, the percentage of responses
obtained in this study might have been disproportionately large, or unrepresentatively small.
Practical implications – The overall ?ndings may have signi?cant implications for the wine and
wine tourism industries, and might be bene?cial for wineries in their efforts of providing a more
valuable experience for wine tourists.
Originality/value – This exploratory study provides new and practical insights of the winery
experience in the New Zealand context, an area where very limited research has been conducted.
Keywords Wines, Age groups, Tourism, New Zealand
Paper type Research paper
Introduction and literature review
While New Zealand wine production only represents 1 percent of total production
worldwide (MAF, 2003), the achievements of the wine industry in this country in terms
of growth in the last decade are very impressive. The large increase in the number of
wineries, from 175 in 1993 to 516 in 2005, and hectares planted of grapes from 4,880 in
1990 to 17,809 in 2004 (MAF, 2003; Wine Institute of New Zealand, 2004, 2005) provide
evidence of such a consistent growth. Reports indicating a 14-fold increase in the
number of international wine tourists in New Zealand, rising from 11,220 visitors in
1997 to 165,048 in 2005 (Tourism Research Council, 2006), and that the large majority
(85 percent) of wine production in this country is in the hands of foreign ownership
(Collins, 2004) illustrate the great interest among international wine and wine tourism
stakeholders.
Interest in wines is also developing among New Zealand consumers, with domestic
wine consumption increasing from 17.6 to 21.8 l per capita between 1994 and 2005
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1750-6182.htm
Impact of age on
the winery
experience
131
Received April 2006
Revised November 2006
Accepted February 2007
International Journal of Culture,
Tourism and Hospitality Research
Vol. 1 No. 2, 2007
pp. 131-139
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1750-6182
DOI 10.1108/17506180710751678
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(Rabobank, 2006; Beer Wine and Spirits Council, 2006). Wine production forecasts
indicating a signi?cant rise in exports (Wine Institute of New Zealand, 2005;
Rabobank, 2006) suggest increasing opportunities in the future for those involved in
this industry, including wine tourism. Moreover, the continuous growth of the tourism
and hospitality industries in New Zealand is an important factor contributing to the
further development of wine tourism. The increase in international visitors forecast for
the next years (Tourism Research Council, 2006), and that of the hospitality industry in
number of facilities being open and employees working full-time in this industry
(Statistics New Zealand, 1997, 1999, 2005), further demonstrate the potential for future
business opportunities.
Several researchers discuss the concept of wine tourism from a number of
dimensions, both in New Zealand (Mitchell, 1999; Hall et al., 2000; Alonso, 2005), and
internationally (Dodd, 1995; Carlsen and Dowling, 1999; Charters and Ali-Knight, 2000,
2002). The winery experience involves an interaction between the visitor, the winery,
and what the visitor obtains or gains from the experience in terms of product and
service. Within this context, one important dimension that prior studies investigate is
how to identify the winery visitor or wine tourist. Charters and Ali-Knight (2002, p. 312)
note: “. . . there is no single, stereotypical wine tourist- nor therefore, a unilateral
de?nition of him or her.”
Researchers, however, use different elements to segment or wine tourists into
sub-groups. For example, some studies pro?le these visitors applying characteristics
that are part of consumer behavior research (Kotler et al., 1999; Wedel and Kamakura,
2000). A number of authors refer to a demographic approach (Howley and van
Westering, 1998; Macionis and Cambourne, 1998; Nixon, 1998; SATC, 1997, in Charters
and Ali-Knight, 2002; Jolley, 2002; Bruwer, 2004; Tassiopoulos et al., 2004). The
demographic approach includes the use of such variables as age, level of education,
occupation, level of wine knowledge, income (Dodd and Bigotte, 1997), wine interest,
wine cellaring behavior, and wine club participation (Mitchell et al., 2000; Mitchell and
Hall, 2001).
Several studies also sort winery visitors into categories, including the professional,
the impassioned neophyte, the hanger-on, and the drinker (Corigliano, 1996, in Mitchell
et al., 2000), or the young optimists, traditional family life, socially aware, and visible
achievers (Macionis and Cambourne, 1998). Jago et al. (2000) introduce in their study
the serious wine tourists; these are identi?able according to the planning of the visit,
size of winery, main reason for visit, and length of stay in the wine region. Charters and
Ali-Knight (2002) use motivating factors and goals of winery visitors, including their
wine knowledge and interest in wine to identify the wine lover, the connoisseur, the
wine interested, and the wine novice.
Another approach researchers use to study winery visitors involves
psychographics (Plog, 1991), and emphasizes on people’s attitudes, lifestyles and
values (Charters and Ali-Knight, 2002). Dodd (2000) discusses psychographics
when he studies the level of product and purchase involvement among winery
visitors. Dodd and Gustafson (1997), and Mitchell et al. (2000) also explore winery
visitors’ psychographic pro?les using the concept of psychographics. However, limited
published information on the psychographic pro?le of winery visitors is available
(Mitchell et al., 2000; Charters and Ali-Knight, 2002).
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One of the main potential bene?ts of segmenting and pro?ling wine tourists is
undoubtedly the identi?cation of visitor groups that may offer higher commercial
value for wineries. A limited number of researchers investigate this dimension among
New Zealand wine tourists. Mitchell and Hall (2001) report gender differences of
winery visitors, identifying a tendency among female winery visitors to make post
winery visit wine purchases. Mitchell’s (2002) ?ndings suggest clear differences among
groups of winery visitors according to their generation, namely between Baby
Boomers, individuals born between 1946 and 1960, and those individuals that belong to
the Generation X group, or born between 1961 and 1974. These differences include
Baby Boomers’ higher wine knowledge, daily wine consumption, monthly wine
purchases and higher number of bottles of wine cellared than their Generation X
counterparts.
Overall, however, information available about wine tourists and the winery
experience is rather limited (Getz, 2000; Beames, 2003; Getz and Brown, 2004). This lack
of information also includes research studies investigating the potential commercial
value of different visitor groups. This study explores this particular dimension further
and investigates potential differences among three different age groups of wine tourists.
Method
Owing to time and budget constraints limiting the ability to travel to wine regions
nationwide to interview winery visitors, this study uses a predominantly quantitative
approach in the form of a questionnaire. The questionnaire also includes a qualitative
component in the form of open-ended questions and space for comments as a
complement to gain alternative insights of respondents’ answers. The questionnaire
design aims to obtain information about visitors’ winery experience, including their
involvement with wine, as well as their consumption and expenditure patterns while at
the winery and to measure these dimensions as applicable.
Contact established with a total of 110 New Zealand winery owners from all wine
regions in New Zealand allowed for inviting the owners of these businesses to
participate in this study. Owners’ involvement was mainly in the form of receiving and
distributing questionnaires among their visitors. Of all contacted businesses,
43 (39.1 percent) agreed to participate in the study. These businesses received a
total of 1,777 questionnaires. The direct distribution of 681 questionnaires among ?ve
of the 43 participating wineries located near the researcher’s university provided
a complement to the data collection effort. The belief that a direct distribution approach
encourages more responses from winery visitors was a decisive factor in choosing this
approach.
To collect the data, the researcher chose the months between December 2003 and
April 2004, as these months appear to be popular among winery visitors. This decision
is partly in accord with previous wine tourism studies in New Zealand (Mitchell, 1999)
that suggest that winery visitors favor the summer months (January through March)
most. From all 2,458 distributed questionnaires, the receipt of 609 usable responses
represents a response rate of 25 percent.
The present study uses several statistical tools to analyze the data collected,
including cross tabulations to assess the level and signi?cance of any relationships
with chi-square (x
2
) and Cramer’s V statistics, and Scheffe´ tests run in conjunction
with one-way ANOVA to determine inter-group differences.
Impact of age on
the winery
experience
133
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What is the impact of age on the winery experience? Results
Respondents are grouped into three different age categories: the ?rst includes visitors
35 years old and below (179 or 29.4 percent), the second group includes those between
36 and 55 years old (216 or 35.5 percent), and the third those 56 years of age and above
(194 or 31.9 percent). The main reason to group visitors as noted above is to obtain
three similar groups to draw comparisons from, without excluding any respondents
that do not ?t into any particular generational categories, that is, Generation Xers and
Baby Boomers. The data for 20 respondents (3.3 percent) are excluded from the
analyses due to respondents’ omission.
Respondents’ wine knowledge is the ?rst variable investigated. Wine knowledge is
measured using an interval scale, where a one indicates no wine knowledge at all and a
seven extensive knowledge. Respondents 56 years of age and older report having
greater wine knowledge than younger respondents, particularly those aged 35 and
below. Clearly, age and the passage of time may be contributing factors in facilitating
learning and processing information about wines.
Further analysis of wine knowledge includes gender effects and indicates that
111 females (36.2 percent) are below the age of 36, as compared to 65 (23.8 percent) of
males, but 119 (43.6 percent) males are older than 55 years, and only 71 (23.1 percent) in
this age group are females. The resulting Pearson’s x
2
(2,n¼580)
¼ 28.309 ( p ¼ 0.000)
suggests a statistically signi?cant difference between genders and age. Females are
over-represented in the youngest age group and under-represented in the oldest
age group. Further, male visitors’ age appears to be a factor determining their longer
interest in wine as compared to their female counterparts. Further comparisons that
consist in dividing groups into domestic and international, their age and wine
knowledge indicate no signi?cant differences among domestic visitors. However,
overseas respondents of ages 56 and above indicate a clearly higher wine knowledge
than the other age groups. Testing with Scheffe´ post hoc ( p ¼ 0.000) further con?rms
this difference.
Wine involvement is measured among the three age groups using the areas shown
in Table I. A larger percentage of visitors of ages 56 and above consume more wine
per week, purchase more wine bottles per month, and their interest in wines appears to
be for a longer period of time than the other age groups. In this last case, however,
while using x
2
suggests a statistically signi?cant relationship between age and years
interested in wine, once again the age of the participants may be a contributing factor
in?uencing the outcome of the number of years of their ongoing interest in wine.
When the three age groups of respondents are compared to their respective levels of
expenditures at the winery, the result suggests a statistically signi?cant difference
Areas
a
Age group
a
n x
2
df
Signi?cance
( p value)
More glasses of wine consumed per week (11 þ ) 3 547 30.200 4 0.000
More bottles purchased per month (11 þ ) 3 553 43.268 4 0.000
More years interested in wine (11 þ years) 3 519 136.189 2 0.000
More wine books owned (6 þ ) 2 332 6.949 2 0.031
Note:
a
Indicates group with highest level of involvement, where 1 ¼ ages 35 and below, 2 ¼ ages
36-55, and 3 ¼ ages 56 and above
Table I.
Relationships for age
groups and areas of wine
involvement
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between these variables. Perhaps, most importantly, a much higher percentage of
individuals of ages 35 and below report making minimal expenditures in the range
from $NZ 0 and $NZ 13, while at the other end, those aged 56 and above for the most
part indicate spending above $NZ 13. The value of x
2
(4,n¼492)
¼ 18.292, ( p ¼ 0.001)
con?rms a relationship between age and expenditures at the winery. As illustrated in
Table II, further analysis between the age groups and items they purchase during the
winery visit indicate that respondents of ages 35 and below mainly favor a glass of
wine, with a meal, and one or two bottles of wine. Visitors between the ages of 36 and
55 also favor similar items, with six of them additionally choosing accommodation as
one of their purchases. In contrast, respondents of ages 56 and above mainly prefer a
glass of wine, a meal, two bottles of wine, and a snack. The product preferences of this
group of visitors suggest that they are more involved with food at the winery, resulting
in their higher expenditure, as compared to visitors below the age of 56.
An additional area in this study compares levels of education with both age groups.
The result of Pearson x
2
(4,n¼567)
¼ 33.539, ( p ¼ 0.000), suggests a statistically
signi?cant relationship between age and level of education. A larger percentage of
respondents of ages 35 and below hold a university degree in comparison to the other
two groups, particularly to respondents of ages between 36 and 55. At the higher end, a
larger percentage of respondents of ages 56 and above hold only a primary or high
school quali?cation.
Comparing age groups and household income con?rms a statistically signi?cant
relationship between these, with Pearson’s x
2
(4,n¼520)
¼ 9.887, ( p ¼ 0.042).
Respondents of ages between 36 and 55 years earn the highest incomes, while those
of ages 35 and below form the second highest group of earners. The higher percentages
of visitors of ages 35 and below with more educational attainment, in addition to their
reported higher incomes, are indications that this group of younger, more educated,
and wealthier wine tourists may become an important visitor segment for wineries in
the future. Moreover, this group of wealthier and more highly educated individuals
may be able to afford greater involvement with wine in the future, and could become an
alternative to such groups as those branded Baby Boomers, and Generation Xers, that
this study discusses earlier (Mitchell, 2002).
In contrast, respondents of ages 56 and above earn lower incomes. However, the fact
that 56.5 percent of these visitors earn above $NZ 60,000 further supports the view that
this group of individuals have the time and disposable income to spend. In addition,
107 (55.2 percent) respondents over the age of 55 are retirees. A total of 51 (47.7 percent)
Age 35 or less Age 36-55 Age 56 þ Overall
Categories f Percent f Percent f Percent f Percent
A glass of wine 55 23.9 94 40.9 81 35.2 230 37.8
A meal 45 21.5 88 42.1 76 36.4 209 34.3
2 þ bottles of wine for my cellar 38 24.1 63 39.9 57 36.1 158 25.9
1 bottle of wine for my cellar 36 31.0 48 41.4 32 27.6 116 19.0
Snack 22 22.9 35 36.5 39 40.6 96 15.8
Souvenirs 8 29.6 15 55.6 4 14.8 27 4.4
Accommodation 2 22.2 6 66.7 1 11.1 9 1.5
Table II.
Winery consumption
patterns of different age
groups
Impact of age on
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of these visitors earn incomes below $NZ 60,000, and of these, 34 (66.7 percent) earn
between $NZ 30,000 and $NZ 60,000. However, even the majority of these respondents
(19 or 56 percent) still indicate spending at least $NZ 14 during their visit. These results
suggest that wineries should be aware that segments of visitors earning higher
incomes might not necessarily translate into higher expenditures. Consequently,
business operators should also pay attention to less wealthy segments that may have
at least similar commercial potential as those earning higher incomes. The question
here may revolve around what alternatives are there for these individuals to spend
their retirement income on. From a business perspective, the group of visitors over
55 years of age has commercial potential for wineries. In addition, while retirees’
incomes may appear modest, their winery expenditures may re?ect a greater
utilization of funds that income ?gures do not indicate.
Limitations
Several limitations must be acknowledged in this study. For example, the sample of
participating wineries open to the public, 27 (63 percent) in the South Island and
16 (37 percent) in the North Island, is not representative of the geographic distribution
of wineries in New Zealand at the time of conducting this study, namely 55 percent in
the North Island versus 45 percent in the South Island. In addition, the predominantly
quantitative approach of the data collection over a qualitative approach in this study
may limit the ability to capture important elements that are unique of the qualitative
approach. Finally, some individuals completing the questionnaires may be more
sympathetic to the purpose of this study, or may be from a particular age group that
has more time to participate or complete questionnaires as opposed to other respondent
groups. As a result, one particular group of visitors may be dominant in terms of
numbers of questionnaires completed, potentially leading to further distortions in the
representativeness of the sample.
Conclusions and further research
The overall results indicate several clear differences among the age groups explored,
notably in terms of their involvement with wine and expenditures they incur at the
winery. In comparison to the other age groups, a larger percentage of respondents of
ages 56 and above earn $NZ 60,000 and below. However, members of this group may
still have more disposable income to spend, for example, in the form of life savings,
than other segments of winery visitors. Further, some respondents of ages 56 and
above may be enjoying retirement, or at least may have fewer family or professional
commitments. Hence, a lower income after retirement does not seem to limit their level
of wine involvement, nor affect the way they spend at the winery. Moreover, a higher
percentage of these visitors indicate spending more under the middle category of
expenditures at the winery, that is, above $NZ 13, than the other age groups. The level
of expenditure at the winery of visitors of ages 56 and above suggests their commercial
potential, and that wineries might want to pay more attention to this group.
In contrast, visitors of ages 35 and below may currently have less commercial
potential than other more mature visitor groups. However, the fact that they earn
higher incomes, are more educated and due to their age still have more time ahead of
them to gain wine knowledge and increase their involvement with wines suggests their
future potential.
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A ?nal note regards several avenues for future research. The potential effects of
changes in the demographic make-up of winery visitors, that is, with the af?uence of
younger, more educated and wealthier individuals that this study suggests merit
future investigation. For example, the younger more af?uent and educated groups’
expenditure patterns may not follow over time the patterns of the older respondent
groups in this study. Further, the increase in wine consumption in New Zealand,
coupled with the increasing number of international visitors to this country present
opportunities and challenges for both wineries and the wine industry. Future research
needs to explore these issues and developments as they could have several implications
for wineries and the wine industry in terms of the choices consumers and winery
visitors make about wines, their expenditure and level of consumption. While wineries
may continue focusing on an ever-thirstier overseas market for New Zealand wines,
rising consumption levels in this country should not go unnoticed nor should they be
underestimated. Future studies could examine this potential scenario.
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Impact of age on
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