Wine tourism services as competitive factor for direct sales development - Evidence from Italy

Wine tourism is a relevant success factor for wine business. Its influence affects not only the wineries communication through word-of-mouth, most of all on social networks, but also their image, and most of all their direct sales. Very frequently, in fact, the wine tourism performance can be appreciated by the direct sales performance. In this respect, wine tourism service can express some influence, thus assuming a direct link between the service level intensity in the wine tourism offer and the level intensity of direct sales at the winery. However, in the current investigation, even though with an exploratory nature, evidences do not support this direct link. Main implications of the research concern the prominence of logistic services in a potential link with direct sales, and probably that the level of sales could not be the most correct indicator for evaluating a wine tourism experience with high levels of service.