The relationship between involvement, destinationemotions and placeattachment in the Porto winecellars

Abstract

Purpose – This paperaims tomeasure therole ofinvolvement, destinationemotions andplaceattachment inthebehaviouralintentionsofwinetouristswhenvisitingPortowinecellars. Design/methodology/approach – An interceptive survey was conducted with wine tourists during their visits to four Porto wine cellars. A convenience sample of 918 international visitors was obtained. A structuralequationmodelusingpartialleastsquaresanalysiswasusedtotestthehypothesisandthevalidity oftheconstructsandmodel. Findings – The structural model results indicated that wine tourists’ personal involvement and their wine involvement have a significant and direct influence on destination emotions and place attachment in Porto winecellarsduringthevisits,whichdeterminestheirfuturebehaviouralintentions. Research limitations/implications – The generalizability of the results may be limited owing to the sampleandthedatacollectionmethodandtheshorttimeframeofthedatagathering. Practical implications – There is a growing potential for researchers and managers to achieve benefits from the proposed model that will support the efforts for wine tourism theory and practice, such as brand positioningstrategiesandformulationofsharpermarketingstrategies. Originality/value – This is the first study to demonstrate the combined use of personal and wine involvement on destination emotions along with place attachment in a wine tourist behaviour context. This approach extends the scope into a wine tourism context because the combination of these three constructs has never been held in the area of wine tourism destinations.