Tourism Economics

Wine is gaining increasing importance in the modern tourism industry. The aim of this paper is to unpack the relations between engaging agritourism practices and wine farming specialisation in Italy, with special emphasis on socio-economic sustainability performances. The analysis is conducted at the farm level using Italian Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) data over the 2017–2021 period and exploiting a Propensity Score Matching approach. Results show that wine farms are more likely to pursue agritourism activities than other farms, with high-quality wine producers offering a more diverse tourism option. Wine tourism affects socio-economic sustainability, but with differences noted between high-quality and conventional producers. Implications arise for policy makers and practitioners building local development strategies and finding inroads to fostering sustainable tourism.

This study explores the impact of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives on human capital externalities within the wine industry through a theoretical microeconomic model. The analysis highlights how DEI human capital contributes to productivity enhancements, improved wage dynamics, and positive externalities. The Constant Elasticity of Substitution (CES) production function was used to model the interplay between DEI human capital and labour dynamics, supported by demographic data from wineries in China. Findings suggest that increasing DEI human capital generates significant organizational benefits, such as smoother wage adjustments and enhanced workforce cohesion. The results also show that optimal DEI participation varies with key factors like capital intensity and substitution elasticity, providing actionable insights for wineries. The study underscores the need for strategic DEI investments to maximize externalities and suggests that future empirical research validate these theoretical findings for broader applicability across regions and operational scales.

This study investigates servitization in the global wine industry, focusing on nearly 5300 wineries across 23 countries. Servitization, the integration of services with core wine offerings, remains underdeveloped, with 40.2% of wineries reporting no service revenue and 32.3% earning less than 10% from services. The paper identifies ten stylized facts that characterize the current landscape of servitization, revealing varying levels of service adoption across different regions and winery types. These facts provide a foundation for understanding how service integration is emerging within the industry. The findings underscore the need for further research to explore the drivers and impacts of servitization, as well as regional variations and their implications for winery performance. This study paves the way for future investigations into how servitization could influence the global wine market.

This paper analyses, in a two-step procedure, the productivity growth of 69 Spanish wineries (period 1998-2022) which offer tourism activities at their installations. To do so, we firstly calculate the total factor productivity (TFP) change using a directional distance function (DDF) and the Luenberger-Hicks-Moorsteen (LHM) TFP indicator introduced by Ang and Kerstens (2017), which allows us to correctly distinguish between technological change (TC), technical inefficiency change (TINC) and scale inefficiency change (SINC). Although a high efficiency is found in median terms, productivity decreased during the period in cumulative terms. This is explained by two contrasting forces: a positive TINC and SINC, and a negative TC. In a second step, we analyse the effect of some factors on TFP change and its components using a dynamic panel data model. Several practical implications are proposed based on these outcomes.

This article examines whether the collective reputation of the regions of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne and the Rhône Valley benefits all wine producers in these areas. The analysis is based on a sample of 559 French companies for the period 2014-2023. The results demonstrate higher economic margins for firms from Burgundy and Champagne, suggesting that these firms are able to charge higher prices due to a superior collective reputation. This outcome is consistent across a range of firm sizes and ownership structures, including private firms and cooperatives. While firms from Burgundy have higher returns on assets, the cooperatives from Champagne exhibit the most significant outperformance. Conversely, lower economic margins are observed for firms from Bordeaux, indicating that enhanced individual reputation may offer greater benefits for firms in this region.

Gender stereotypes may affect market transactions. We use a laboratory experimental fifth-price Vickrey auction to analyze the effect of the producer’s gender on consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for wine, along with a response to the perceived warmth and competence of the producer. The within-subject design includes three rounds for one male and one female producer. Round 1 includes their name and picture, round 2 adds their professional background, and round 3 includes a tasting. Using two models, we regress WTP against the producer’s gender and then against its interaction with perceived warmth and competence. Our main results suggest that while consumers’ WTP is not sensitive to the gender of the producer, perceived warmth and competence correlate differently with WTP for each producer, with a stronger influence of competence for the female and a stronger effect of warmth for the male.

This study aims to analyze the dimensions that determine an enotourist’s experience when (s)he visits wineries. In addition, in a novel approach, this work examines the influence of wine routes on this experience. On the basis of a set of reviews posted by wine tourists on TripAdvisor, Latent Dirichlet Allocation analysis is conducted to identify the dimensions that determine the wine tourism experience. Subsequently, ordinal logistic regression analysis is performed to identify the most determinant dimensions of visitors’ assessments of their experiences and the influence of wine routes. Results indicate that the “staff” dimension, associated with the treatment provided by tour guides, is the most determinant dimension. In addition, significant differences are observed in the assessment of attributes across the different wine routes.

This paper explores how wine tourists move in an emerging wine tourism destination and the driving mechanisms for both the demand and supply sides. Trajectories and questionnaires were obtained. Subsequently, based on two antecedent variables, wine knowledge and self-identification, wine tourists were classified into four groups. Their respective spatial movement characteristics and demographics were obtained through social network analysis, ANOVA and Chi-square tests, resulting in four final groups, namely, keen-interest wine tourists, multi-purpose wine tourists, entry-level wine tourists and hanging-out wine tourists. Interviews were conducted to determine and compare the demand-side and supply-side factors that influence the movement patterns of the four groups of wine tourists. This research represents a pioneering effort to map the spatial movement patterns of wine tourists by considering wine knowledge and self-identity. It theoretically and practically contributes to the understanding of various movement patterns in emerging wine tourism destinations.

This study investigates how the fee-oriented business model in the hospitality industry is associated with corporate tax avoidance. Using a sample of international hospitality firms, the results from OLS and entropy balancing estimations indicate that greater reliance on fees is associated with lower tax avoidance, reflected in higher effective tax rates. We attribute this higher tax burden to lower incentives of fee-oriented businesses to engage in tax avoidance to preserve their reputation—a strategic asset. This study provides insights into a societal benefit of the widespread adoption of the fee-oriented business model in the hospitality industry, namely increased corporate tax contributions.

This study examines the relationship between intellectual capital (IC) and the financial performance of tourism-related firms in Thailand, using panel data from 32 listed companies (192 firm-year observations) from 2016 to 2021. Panel regression methods, including pooled ordinary least squares (OLS), fixed effects, random effects and the dynamic panel estimator (system generalized method of moments, or system GMM) are applied to test the robustness of results. The findings reveal that overall IC has a significant positive impact on firm profitability, especially return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE). Among IC components, human capital efficiency (HCE) and capital employed efficiency (CEE) are key drivers of firm performance, while structural capital efficiency (SCE) shows limited influence in the dynamic model. These results offer practical insights for managers aiming to strengthen performance through effective IC utilization, and highlight the need for targeted policy support in tourism-intensive economies.