Travel group member type effects in wine tourism: an ECHAID segmentation

The intense social nature of wine tourism is widely acknowledged. Yet there is a paucity of research examining the nature of travel groups and, more specifically, the relationship(s) between the motivations that drive them to visit wine tourism destinations. Our study is the first to examine these relationships in combination with motivation-based segmentation. Utilising a sample of 994 respondents drawn from three states in the USA’s mid-Atlantic region, and applying the ECHAID classification tree method, a robust segmentation solution is derived. Five segments merit further investigation of which three exhibit response rates of 80% plus and profile lifts of 1.32 or higher. These segments include respondents who: live in a household with at least one other wine drinker and either purchased mid-Atlantic wine and were a super core wine drinker (segment 2), did not purchase mid-Atlantic wine but did buy cases of wine (segment 4), or were single/the only adult in the household who drank wine, purchased mid-Atlantic wine, and were male (segment 6). We conclude that the relationship nature between members of visit groups influences motivation-based segmentation and socio-demographic group interaction effects exist in wine tourism. Practical implications of the findings are discussed and future research directions identified.