What attracts visitors to wine regions? Evidence from Greece

Abstract

This paper aims to provide a better understanding of the wine tourist. To this end, a quantitative approach was employed in order to determine the specific socio-economic characteristics, behavior and motivations of visitors to Northern Greek wineries. In particular, empirical data were collected from 381 winery visitors, via an on-site, self-administered questionnaire. Results indicated that the winery visitor in Northern Greece is male, age 36-45, married, resident in close proximity to the wine region, highly educated and income over the average. Furthermore, Principal Components Analysis with Varimax rotation revealed that wine tourism motivation revolves around seven components, namely: “Gaining experience’, ‘Socializing’, ‘Destination attractiveness’, ‘Core wine product’, ‘Landscape, relaxation and escape’, ‘Familiarity’ and ‘Previous experience and novelty’.