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

yoga tourism operators indicates how activities, such as yoga, offer destinations (i.e. India) a huge marketing opportunity to attract
high yield niche tourists.
Another key contribution that my research has made is in revealing how wine tourism can help to create an image of the
winery/region, providing a major motivating factor for tourists to visit a destination. Yuan et al. note how Paper 4 indicates how ‘wine
tourism represents a marketing opportunity, which increases the value of the wine destinations’ (Yuan et al., 2008, p.217). Mitchell
and Hall (2006) and Mitchell (2006) acknowledge how research into post visit behaviour of winery visitors is rare. As part of a
limited group of authors, they make reference to my research when discussing the significance of winery visitation for positive
brand and image development at both the individual winery and at a regional level. My research demonstrates that for the first two
market segments – the wine lover and the connoisseur – learning about wine and visiting the winery is a key component of their
tourist experience. Yuan et al. (2005) evidence this when they state ‘as asserted by Charters and Ali-Knight visitors to wineries
rarely just drop in’ (Yuan et al., 2005 p.44). Therefore for a premium wine region, like Margaret River, destination specific wine
tourism plays a key role in destination imaging and in the tourist experience.
The final area of contribution to destination development research is in the area of festivals and events. Morgan, Pritchard and
Pride (2002) comment on how for all destinations, especially niche destination players, event capitalisation can exert significant
influence on branding the destination. They continue to note that ‘the potential of such opportunities deserves attention from both
academics and practitioners’ (Morgan et al., 2002, p.351). Although national destination images have received considerable
research interest, little work has focused on how a nation’s image can shape its economic and cultural focus and help to brand a
nation. Paper 13, although exploratory in nature, addresses these issues and lays the foundation for developing the ACCESS