Wine tourism: a content analysis on memorable multisensory experiences for the consumers

Introduction
Sensory marketing creates an interactive and immersive experience for the consumer, capable of make it into something unforgettable. Specifically in Wine tourism, all the elements that make up its marketing offer are crucial for creating a unique and memorable multisensory experience, through enhancing of the tourist’s sensations and emotions. It is important to known in depth the sensorial elements that are central in creating this unique and memorable multisensory experience for the tourist.
Goals and Methods
The paper aims to understand: (i) how the Douro Wine Region is experienced by tourists; (ii) how the region is characterized by tourists at a sensory level. Regarding methodology, a constructivist paradigm was adopted using netnography as a research strategy. A total of 263 reviews on TripAdvisor and Google – from 10 wineries in the Douro Vinhateiro, between March 2021 and April 2023 – were collected and constituted the sample. The collected data was subjected to a thematic content analysis with support of the WebQDA software. The sensory categories were previously classified based on a literature review on the topic.
Results
The main results suggest that the subcategories belonging vision sense are the most important during the tourist experience, with constant references to elements such as landscape and scenery in the reviews on TripAdvisor and Google. Next, two senses were highlighted: the palate, which is mostly characterized by wine and local cuisine; the audition, where the guided tour and the guide are repeatedly mentioned. Only a few reviews included references to the last two senses: touch and smell.
Conclusions
This paper allows to understand how senses work in creating a memorable experience for the consumer. Thus, valuable tips are suggested that can be applied by marketing managers to exceed the expectations at the sensory level of consumers who experience wine tourism.