Wine Tourism in Santorini, Crete: Exploring the Behaviour, Motives, and Intentions of Wine Tourists

Wine tourism is a fast growing sector, with an estimated 30% growth in 2018 and has emerged as a strong and rising area of special interest tourism, representing an increasingly important element of regional and rural tourism development. In Greece wine has played an important role since ancient times, as it was an integral part of nutrition and religion, and by 800BC, Greeks had begun to perfect their techniques in winemaking.Wine tourism in our days, constitutes a factor for attracting visitors from all over the world. The present paper is an effort to explore and investigate the factors that affect the behavior of wine tourists in the island of Santorini, shaping their motives and intentions. More specifically, the aim of this paper is to explore the motivating factors that influence winery visitation, wine tourists’ level of satisfaction, interest and knowledge on wine, as well as their demographic characteristics. The methodological approach was based on quantitative research; more specifically a survey was conducted with the use of structured questionnaires. Results showed that the most popular activity for wine tourists visiting Santorini wineries was wine tasting and the main motives influencing the decision for winery visitation involved wine tasting and experiencing the atmosphere of the winery. This research also showed that the most important factors contributing to wine tourist’s satisfaction concerned the attitude, professionalism and knowledge of winery staff, as well as service quality.

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