Visitor profiles and motivations at wine festivals

experiences of empirical research in Australia and the Eger wine region

Abstract

Based on survey results obtained at one Australian and four Hungarian wine festivals, the authors examine the motivations for visiting festivals. As suggested by the Australian researchers, we study the influence of social groups (alone, couple, friends, family) on the motivations for attending a festival. The results show that while certain motivations (external socialization and recreation, internal socialization, delight in wines) significantly differ by group type, others (cultural exploration and event uniqueness/novelty) are common to all visitors regardless of social group. Thus, in order to increase customer satisfaction and retention, it would be important to consider the motivational differences among social groups when designing the product and communication strategies of festivals. While visitors in Hungary are largely motivated to attend festivals based on their need for recreation (refresh themselves mentally and physically) Australians placed importance on cultural exploration (desire to gain knowledge about wine, food and music). Besides examining visitor motivations, the demographic profile of the “average” visitor in Hungary and in Australia is also revealed in the paper.