The Propensity of Wine Festivals to Encourage Subsequent Winery Visitation

For many wineries and wine regions the annual wine festival is a strategic tool for encouraging cellar door visitation. Wine festivals offer the opportunity to socialise, possibly with friends and family, whilst learning about and enjoying a natural, agricultural setting and product. Revenue and recognition is generated for the participating wineries, awareness of the area and its resources is enhanced, and the community at large and outside providers find a new source of customers. Whilst this is a worthy list of benefits for all stakeholders, is there a longer-term direct benefit to wineries? This study of wine festival participants looks at the propensity of wine festival attendees to be persuaded to revisit the participating wineries as a consequence of their attendance at a wine festival. The paper concludes that there are positive future visitation benefits not just for the wineries staging the festival but also the influence extends and benefits the wider industry.