Designing festival experiences to influence visitor perceptions: the case of a wine and food festival

Abstract

An activity that has been found to enhance wine tourism opportunities is wine and food festivals. This article examines how, through the manipulation of such festival attributes, festival managers can foster positive consumer perceptions of products central to the festival. The article first describes the attributes that define a festival and then, using the Moonlight Wine Tour festival as a case for study, explores how much of an influence certain festival attributes have on shaping visitors' perceptions of the wine on show. An ANOVA determines that five festival attributes are effective predictors of creating positive changes in people's perceptions, while one attribute has a negative effect. A binomial generalized linear model is then created for use in managerial situations by specifying which combined set of attributes are the most significant in creating positive and negative changes in consumer perceptions.