Customer engagement in domestic wine tourism: The role of motivations

Ascertaining wine tourists' relationship with wine regions, as an outcome of their travel experiences, is an essential element in the longevity of continued consumer-region relationships. However, evaluating this relationship has seen discrepancy with scholars investigating, for example, satisfaction, loyalty and/or behavioural intentions. Moreover, these concepts provide only partial insights into the consumers' 'connection' with wine regions, giving a cognitive-based view that does not account for attitudinal factors, time, or depth of interaction between wine tourist and wine region. In response, this research adopts the concept of Customer Engagement (CE), encompassing psychological, emotional and behavioural dimensions. In particular, we examine the role of wine involvement and wine knowledge on customer engagement with wine regions, as well as the mediating role of the motivations. Specifically, wine tourism provides a plethora of exciting and pleasurable activities to all tourists - transcending wine and the cellar door. This research thus investigates both wine and non-wine specific motivations to better understand why wine tourists engage with wine regions. Through the use of structural equation modelling with a sample of 220 survey respondents, the results of this study advance our knowledge regarding the role of motivations, as well as of wine involvement and wine knowledge for customer engagement in the wine tourism context, and in particular in relation to regions.