The Role of Niche Tourism Products in Destination - Repository ...

In developing awareness of the niche tourist, my key contribution has been in providing an insight into motivating factors and visitor
profiles for both wine and yoga tourists. Carlsen (2004) states how our knowledge of the wine tourism target market is not well
developed and Charters et al. observe how ‘less attention has been placed on the psychological and affective characteristics of the
winery experience’ (Charters et al., 2009, p.122). They comment on the contribution of my previous work (Papers 1, 3 and 4) in
highlighting the role of personal growth through education as a motivating factor for tourists to wine regions and an attempt to
define wine tourism in broader terms (Roberts and Sparks, 2006). Charters et al. (2009) examine this work in the light of Pine and
Gilmore’s (1999) work on the ‘experience economy’ which is also examined in other wine tourism research (see Appendix 1) not
presented here (cited in Mitchell and Hall, 2006). Indeed, writing recently in 2008, Yuan et al. still make an appeal for in-depth
research ‘to examine the nature of the consumers of wine tourism, namely wine tourists’ (Yuan et al., 2008, p.207). This recognition
that wine tourists are not homogeneous and there is no stereotypical wine tourist (as cited by Galloway et al., 2008; Charters et al.,
2009) is a critical finding of my work and has been important in better informing winery operators on how to meet visitor
expectations and preferences and increase customer loyalty to their brand. Papers 3 and 10 have also helped to formulate a
deeper understanding of wine tourism behaviour and ‘what motivates them to visit a destination and purchase wine offerings’
(Tassiopoulos and Haydam, 2006, p.142). Brown, Havitz and Getz (2007) also note how my work has recognised the need to
describe wine tourism markets, not purely in demographic and behavioural terms, but to examine cross cultural motives and
intentions and how to effectively segment the market. This has made a substantial contribution ‘to the theoretical and conceptual
understanding of wine tourist behaviour’ (Yuan et al., 2008, p.209).
Carlsen (2004) questions whether a discrete, niche wine tourism market exists and states that most visits to wineries are only part
of an overall holiday experience. I would counter this, and argue that Paper 4, as cited by Galloway et al. (2008) reveals five distinct
market segments of winery visitor (connoisseur; wine lover; wine interested; wine novices and hangers on). Within the first two