1. Carson College of Business School of Hospitality Business Management
Byron Marlowe & Rhonda Hammond
7/3/2018
Environment in the 4E’s: An experience economy investigation into the esthetics of weather and wine tourism
Abstract
An esthetic experience occurs when an individual is a passive participant in a fully immersive event or environment. Can wine tourists’ esthetic experience in tasting rooms be influenced by weather conditions and does it influence consumer purchasing behavior?
Literature Preview
Importantly, the climate required to produce grapes is congenial from a tourist’s perspective (Cambourne et al., 2000) and can attract tourists to visit a winery while other types of tourism are often passive in nature, wine tourism consists of visits to wineries, tasting wines, or even taking an active part in the harvest. Destination marketing organizations must also capitalize on this tourism activity, in order to attract one-time visitors back to a wine region, it is important to enhance tourist perceptions of the wine destination and services (Stewart et al., 2008). Although direct sales in tasting rooms account for a relatively small amount of most wineries' total sales, they account for as much as one-third of all annual revenues (Marlowe and Lee, 2013). As suggested by Quadri-Felitti & Fiore (2013) The esthetic experience entails immersion in a sensual environment. The winescape reflects this opportunity and has proven to be fundamental for wine tourism (Alant and Bruwer, 2004; Bruwer and Alant, 2009; Carmichael, 2005; Cohen and Ben-Nun, 2009; Peters, 1997; Williams, 2001).
Esthetics – Examples of wine tourists are enriched by sensual environments (Quadri-Felitti and Fiore, 2012).
• Consuming the ‘winescape’
• Enjoying unique lodging (B&B) and wines
• Driving rural roads lined with vineyards
• Art & craft fairs at wineries
A hypothesis of the study is that spring, summer, fall and winter weather experiences will influence satisfaction and intent to return to wineries within the Red Mountain AVA.
H1: Weather will correlate with satisfaction levels and intent to return
Proposed Methodology
Conducting this study in the Red Mountain American Viticulture Area of Washington state using the theoretical model of the 4E’s to understand the seasonal variations of the wine tourism esthetic experience is explored using a variation of the wine tourist perception survey (Marlowe, 2012) and the 4E model to conceptually frame the investigation. The research method will be an intercept survey distributed by the research team and administered in fall, winter, spring and summer. The researchers will record weather conditions during data collection. An intercept survey will occur in Red Mountain tasting rooms with participants being voluntarily asked to participate.
The survey will include four sections including; 1)demographics, 2) experience economy measures, 3) revisit intention and purchase behavior/intent, and 4) destination perception. Multi item scales will be used to assess variables to capture the constructs. Constructs will use a Likert type scale. Measurements of the 4Es will be adapted from Oh, Fiore, & Jeong (2007) and Quadri-Felliti (2015).
Significance of Study
An experiential view of wine tourism has been scant although promising (e.g. Bruwer and Alant, 2009; Galloway et al., 2008; Getz and Carlsen, 2008; Pikkemaat et al., 2009; Quadri-Felitti and Fiore, 2012, 2013), given the hedonic nature of the wine tourism experience.  Marlowe’s (2013) pilot study of rural wine tourism in southern Oregon investigated how wineries and destination marketing organizations can manage wine tourists’ perceptions of weather and if it effects their wine tasting experience. Although, it did not use the central constructs of the experience economy model; the 4E’s-education, esthetics, entertainment and escapist (Pine & Gilmore, 1999) to explain the experiential nature of wine tourism.
Therefore, the purpose of this study is to test for the esthetic experience of wine tourists under various weather conditions. By conducting the study in the fall, winter, spring and summer, it will attempt to determine if the environment has influence on the perception of the wine tourist on winery tasting room experience, purchase behavior, and perception of a wine destination.
Application
Bridging the gap and adding to the body of knowledge on the Washington wine consumer the value of a strong pilot study is evident to the researchers for the future development of the Washington wine industry. The expectation and implications is that by providing insights about the consumer behavior and tourism habits of the Washington wine consumer at the Red Mountain AVA will then begin to provide feedback for future studies throughout Washington wine country.
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Future Research
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