Virtual Wine Experiences: Is Covid Extending the Boundaries of Wine Tourism?

The Covid pandemic has profoundly impacted the dynamics of the tourism sector, including rural tourism. Restrictions applied to slow down the diffusion of the virus like mobility bans and social distancing have revealed the susceptibility of the sector (Gössling et al., 2021). Indeed, 2020 arrivals recorded the worse negative peak since the fifties. In Italy, visitors of wine regions are primarily constituted by domestic tourists (e.g., 30% International tourists, 70% domestic tourists in the Prosecco Region; Centro Studi Distretto del Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco DOCG, 2019) who, except for the lockdown phase, were allowed to circulate within the Country. Indeed, proximity has long been identified as a success factor in wine tourism (Getz & Brown, 2006). Moreover, wine tourism is generally perceived as safer in case of threats (e.g., terrorist attacks, Song et al., 2019) compared to urban tourism. Nevertheless, the Coronavirus outbreak prompted the diffusion of fear and anxiety (Ahorsu et al., 2020; Luo & Lam, 2020; Mamun & Griffiths, 2020) that may have contributed to change (wine) tourists travel patterns. Consequently, many wineries and oeno-gastronomic tourism providers had to find alternative ways to retain existing customers and attract new ones. In this context, online oeno-gastronomic experiences became an important marketing tool for remote communication and marketing. For these reasons, the following study aims at proposing a first overview on the interest for online wine tourists experiences and its long-term and short-term potential predictors focusing on Italy, which is among the countries with the most remarkable presence of wine tourists (14 million; Garibaldi, 2020). Information collected is helpful to understand whether factors inducing tourists to purchase online oeno-gastronomic experiences are purely short-term or leave room for long-term planning.