Consumers' Motives on Wine Tourism in Greece in the Post-COVID-19 Era

Wine tourism is emerging as one of the most important forms of alternative, sustainable tourism in wine countries, such as Greece, in the post-COVID-19 era. In this paper, consumers' motives for wine tourism in Greece today are investigated regarding (i) their consumption habits related to wine, (ii) their experience with wine tourism, (iii) the parameters that would encourage their visit to a wine region, such as wine, the winery, and general regional characteristics, and (iv) the source of information consulted for a wine tourism experience. The questionnaire was conducted from April to May 2023, with 595 participants, via the Google Forms platform. The statistical analysis was performed with basic tools, as well as cross and chi-square tests, to analyze the data. The highlights of the results indicate that consumers (the participants of the survey) consume more wine today than before the pandemic (57%) and have previous experience in wine tourism (59.8%), with the majority of them having visited a winery more than once (67.4%). The most popular activity at the winery was found to be wine tasting (46.6%), followed by open discussion about wine (35.2%), and, at the regional level, visiting the sights (46%) and doing activities in nature (30.6%). Future participants are looking for innovation in wine tourism, with trained staff (77.5%) and organized tours (74.3%), the organization of wine festivals and other events (71.9%), opportunities to explore the local community, such as the outdoors (83.5%) and its culture and history (70.9%), during their visit, and available information on wine tourism opportunities online (73%). They also are encouraging the transition of the Greek wine tourism industry to the digital world. Based on the overall results, three types of support are proposed for the successful, sustainable development of wine tourism in wine-producing countries.