Wine And Tourism Are The Ultimate Experience Of Place

New Zealand as a country, people and culture is historically linked to the land (Bell 1996), the traditional areas of work, such as agriculture, fishing and horticulture as well as our leisure activities like mountaineering, tramping, boating and swimming all directly involve the natural environment.

This involvement with the land has become a component of national identity. The sense of shared purpose, pride in place, national success all combine to provide a sense of belonging. As a “nation”, New Zealanders

Research conducted by Reid 1990 (in Hall 1997) indicated that tourists most likely to engage in wine tourism were the Pleasure Seeking Holiday Makers. These in general take more holidays, have high incomes, have above average consumption and purchase of alcohol and like to partake in new and different activities when they are on holiday. This would rate them high up on the needs hierarchy.

Many tourists seek authentic and genuine contact with the people and places they visit. Studies by Pearce and Moscardo (1985, cited in Ross 1998) indicated a link between personal motivation and authenticity. Higher levels of authenticity were related to concepts of self-actualization, where lower levels of interest in authenticity, were found to be related to individuals with more biological levels of travel motivation. This not only provides support for the role of motivation and authenticity in tourist behavior, but that tourists deliberately seek situations that they feel matched their personalities and interests. If the place doesn’t fit the individual, discomfort and complaints are likely to result.

The geography of wine is an experience of place; its production is intensely geographical, with wines being identified more by location than anything else (Dickenson and Salt, in Pratt 1994, Hall 2001). Important to this concept is the French term “terroir” which refers to "the growing environment of the grape and vineyard, not just soil and climate. It also involves drainage, slope of the hill, altitude, amount of sunshine, amount of heat and just about everything that will influence the grape.

Some topics in this essay:
, Salt Pratt, Maslows Theory, Giles Middleton, Pearce Moscardo, Eg Natural, Organisation Hall, Tourism Movement, Destination Attractiveness, Della Bitta, ross 1998, wine tourism, hall 2001, cited ross 1998, cited ross, travel involve form, involve form, forms travel, travel involve, forms travel involve, form environmental, desimone 1994, involve form environmental, harris desimone 1994, grape wine,