Do satisfied cellar door visitors want to revisit? Linking past knowledge and consumption behaviors to satisfaction and intention to return.

Abstract

This study evaluates the main determinants of wine tourists' intention to revisit the winery cellar door. The proposed tourist behavior model suggests that past wine-related knowledge and behaviors as well as motivation affect satisfaction with the cellar door visit. The model suggests that actual behavior at the cellar door (number of bottles bought and amount of money spent) is dependent on the previously mentioned factors. A survey of wine tourists in the Barossa Valley, Australia, led to 676 useable questionnaires. The results of a binary logistic model show that only monthly household expenditure on wine consumption and the motive of tasting wine predict satisfaction with the cellar door visit. A negative binomial model shows that the probability to buy more bottles at the winery increases if the visitor is from Australia, satisfied with the visit, has tasted wine at the cellar door, is younger, spends more on monthly household consumption of wine, and was primarily visiting to buy wine. However, intention to revisit is predicted only by satisfaction, awareness of the winery before the visit, motives of buying and tasting wine, and some sociodemographic characteristics. Implications for the management of visitor behavior and the cellar door experience are also discussed.