ONLINE WINE TOURISM MARKETING EFFORTS OF WINERIES AND CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAUS IN TEXAS
Abstract
Wine tourism has become an important driver of business for wineries in many regions around the world, while Texas wine regions are only starting to emerge as important tourism destinations. A study was conducted to investigate how effectively Texas wineries conduct online marketing of wine tourism through their own establishments as well as in a regional context. A specific focus was placed on indications of collaborative wine tourism marketing practices on winery websites. Additionally, Convention and Visitors Bureaus (CVBs) websites were analyzed to investigate the online wine tourism promotion. The results indicate that wineries’ websites provide basic visitor information but are missing out on strategic opportunities to market wine tourism to their areas. The results show that very few CVB websites mention wineries on their homepage. Only two websites had a wine hyperlink on their homepage. Nearly half of the CVB websites provided descriptions or contact information about the wineries at least somewhere on the website, while the other half did not even mention wineries on their websites. To a large degree, many CVB websites have the potential to further contribute to the regional image of wine destinations in Texas.
Citation
Rasch, Leslie (2008). ONLINE WINE TOURISM MARKETING EFFORTS OF WINERIES AND CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAUS IN TEXAS. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /85745.