The Staging of Experiences in Wine Tourism

This article analyzes the potential of wine tourism to create experiences for the tourist. For this purpose the authors benefit from Scheurer's (2003) Scheurer, R. 2003. Erlebnis-setting – Touristische angebotsgestaltung in der erlebnisökonomie [Experience–setting — The staging of tourism supply in an experience economy], Bern: Forschungsinstitut für Freizeit und Tourismus (FIF) der Universität Bern. [Google Scholar] and Mueller and Scheurer's (2004) Mueller, H. R. and Scheurer, R. 2004. Tourismus-Destination als Erlebniswelt: Ein Leitfaden zur Angebotsinszenierung [Tourism destination as an experience world: A guideline to stage experiences][Research Institute for Leisure and Tourism, University of Berne], Bern: Forschungsinstitut für Freizeit und Tourismus (FIF) der Universität Bern. [Google Scholar] experience setting model. A literature review reveals research gaps in the field of experience-oriented wine tourism services and products and calls for more empirical investigations. Therefore, the empirical part of the article presents the case study of the South Tyrolean Wine Route in Italy and applies the experience setting model to assess the potential of experience-orientation of wine routes. The article concludes with tourism policy and management implications and derives questions for further research.