Segmenting Wine Festival Visitors Based on Their Visit Experience

Wine tourism experiences can be offered in many ways, such as visiting wine festivals. They can provide a wide range of experiences that differ from day-to-day living and could be viewed as lifestyle tourism expe­riences. The goal of the research was to segment wine festival visitors and describe them within the experience economy context. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire at wine festivals in Croatia. Research hy­potheses were tested using cluster analysis and ANOVA. Segmentation re­sults show four significantly different groups of wine festival visitors (busi­ness visitors, explorers, devotees and companions). The identified segments significantly differ in their motivation and experience at the wine festival. Based on the results of this research, recommendations for specific market­ing strategies can be given to festival organizers, wineries and destination management organizations. Research expands previous knowledge about customer segments in wine tourism. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study that has developed a wine festival visitor profile based on the experience economy framework.