The phenomena of design influence on consumer involvement and image formation in a winery tourism setting

Winery tourism has become a significant attraction throughout the world. To attract tourists, winery managers must know which socio-demographic group(s) to direct marketing toward, as well as group expectations for a winery experience.; The purpose of this study is to measure the effect sociodemographics, psychographics, involvement, image, and have on a consumer's decision to travel to a winery. Also the study will seek to determine personal preference for a winery's overall design attributes. Objectives included to: (a) investigate the effect socio-demographics have on the psychographic lifestyle variable; (b) examine construct and indicator variable interrelationships; (c) investigate target market design preference for generating markers; and (d) investigate the effect involvement and image may exert on the intention to participate in winery tourism.; Development of the study follows Leiper's model of tourist attraction. Lew's framework for a planning study was followed in its two initial steps. An expert panel was asked to choose between photographs used as generating markers based on winery design attributes. The questionnaire was developed using constructs created in prior research. The survey was converted to HTML using FrontPage 1998, selected photographs were inserted, and the instrument was posted.; A sample of 151 completed surveys was drawn from the web, but of those only 88 were usable due to server and programming errors. Wine consumers were identified with an initial question. Preferences for design aesthetics were identified with photo selection. This population constitutes a stratified random sample of wine consumers who could locate and respond to the survey during the Internet posting period.; To differentiate segments based on demographic and psychographic characteristics of the sample MANOVA was used. ANOVA analysis was used to differentiate means between identified groups in involvement and image. Correlation Analysis was used to identify the differences in variability between personal and product involvement, and intention to visit a winery and personal image.; Results indicated that winery aesthetics preferences of the sample were for lawn approaches, courtyard or walkway grounds, and cellar interiors. There were no significant differences in variance between demographics and psychographics. Analysis for involvement and image showed a positive correlation for both groups.