Understanding winery visitors: The relationship among wine involvement, perceived value, and winery loyalty

Wineries provide diverse tourism experience, which include wine tasting, gastronomy, education, and more. The primary focus of this study is to investigate the extent of visitors’ perceived value of a winery’s attributes and whether that determines the level of satisfaction and loyalty to the winery. The study also investigates whether visitor’s levels of perceived value differ according to their levels of wine involvement. The study uses an online survey with winery visitors intercepted at Wisconsin wineries. The analysis involves both confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. The study identifies that perceived values primarily indicate emotional and service values. While the enjoyment level of wine involvement is positively related with perceived value, expertise level of wine involvement is negatively related. Lastly, positive relationship is identified among the perceived value, satisfaction and winery loyalty. Equipped with an understanding of wineries’ visitors, winery can provide services that are better tailored to visitors

The Impact of Different Informational Messages on Wine Tourists’ Willingness to Pay: A Non-hypothetical Experiment

In the U.S. and around the world, thousands of new wineries have opened in the last decade, most in areas not previously known for wine. The majority of these are small-scale and sell most of the wine produced out of tasting rooms, thus creating great opportunities for wine tourism. This rapid growth offers an important opportunity for rural areas, but only if the many new and inexperienced winery businesses can successfully navigate the challenges of operating both wine and tourism businesses. This study aims to help emerging wine tourism businesses by using non-hypothetical experiments to determine how different types of information impacts tourists’ willingness-to-pay for wine. We use Becker, DeGroot, and Marschak (BDM) experimental auctions to show that different types of information have different impacts on wine tourists’ willingness to pay for new and lesser-known varietals of wine

Using the Stated Preference Choice Method to Inform the Initial Design of a PubliclyFunded Tourism Attraction

Publicly funded capital investments for tourism attractions, if designed and developed in ways that fail to appeal to enough of a potential market, may burden host communities by requiring greater than expected tax contributions toward operating costs, drawing resources away from other public needs and reducing support for future projects. This study uses the stated preference choice method to examine potential user preferences for a publicly funded off-road vehicle park. Results will inform the design of the park in an effort to capture as much of the potential market as possible

Sparking entrepreneurial tendencies in youth: Lessons from sport and life skills education in three African cities

This practice-based article describes a program that aims to instil an interest in entrepreneurship among African youth by helping them make a connection between the skills they have developed through their participation in sport and the skills required of successful entrepreneurs. The program was developed in partnership between scholars at four universities (University of Botswana, University of Dar es Salaam, University of Ghana and Michigan State University), as well as schools at other community organisations in three African cities: Gaborone, Botswana; Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; and Accra, Ghana. The program, which seeks to contribute to the well-established need for job creation in sub- Saharan Africa, integrated basic entrepreneurship and life-skills training activities into a sports camp for youth athletes. The program appears to have developed entrepreneurial tendencies among youth sport participants in these African cities, suggesting that job creation efforts could benefit from targeting youth sport participants and helping them to recognise the important skills they have developed through their participation in sport, and helping them to identify ways in which that skill development could positively impact their futures

Implementing Elements of The Physics Suite at a Large Metropolitan Research University

A key question in physics education is the effectiveness of the teaching methods. A curriculum that has been investigated at the University of Central Florida (UCF) over a period of two years is the use of particular elements of The Physics Suite. Select sections of the introductory physics classes at UCF have made use of Interactive Lecture Demonstrations as part of the lecture component of the class. The lab component of the class has implemented the RealTime Physics curriculum, again in select sections. The remaining sections have continued with the teaching methods traditionally used. Using pre- and post-semester concept inventory tests, a student survey, student interviews, and a standard for successful completion of the course, the data indicates improved student learning