Challenges for Collecting Questionnaire-Based Onsite Survey Data in a Niche Tourism Market Context: The Case of Wine Tourism in Rural Areas

Abstract

Questionnaire-based surveys are among the most widespread data collection methods in tourism research. However, the special features of rural tourism, with frequently spontaneous, non-massive visitation patterns and sparse visitor numbers, pose challenges to onsite questionnaire administration. Researchers must address these problems to make sample recruitment easier and more effective, while maintaining the goals of representativeness of population and data validity. Using the rural wine tourism context, this article identifies the major challenges for questionnaire-based onsite surveys and suggests best practice procedures. Challenges are discussed using three complementary perspectives: of the supply agents, of the research subjects (the visitors) and of the researchers. The article presents the theory and case study-inspired reflection on the potential strategies of overcoming these challenges and guaranteeing the largest possible number of visitors surveyed in contexts where visitors are few. The discussion includes the questionnaire’s characteristics; the physical setting of its administration; the researchers involved; the visitors approached; the social interactions and influences occurring during the process. Issues with the future use of alternative online forums are also discussed.

The Experience Economy in a Wine Destination—Analysing Visitor Reviews

“…Still, the reports are an important primary data source that should not be ignored by destination marketers and wine route developers, not only since they provide relevant qualitative visitor feedback regarding the route's tourism supply (that may help suppliers correct and focus on good practice), but also given the influence that those reports exert on other potential visitors in their destination choice [54,57,58]. Still, future research could additionally systematically assess the four experience realms through interviews or surveys, addressing a representative tourist sample, despite the challenges that survey approaches also pose, making them often time and resource intensive and vulnerable to bias and constraints in the attempt to obtain valid responses in the desired numbers [81]. Future research could also address the interplay between wine tourism and other relevant associated tourism experience products, such as cultural tourism, nature tourism and gastronomy tourism, trying to better understand aspects such as experience co-creation.…”

Wine tourism market research: Bringing the psychophysiology lab to the field

“…Therefore, knowledge about the tourist's emotional reaction towards different experiences and stimuli is essential to inform stakeholders' management decisions and provide a valuable information to successfully design appealing experience opportunities and optimize marketing strategies (Volo 2009). Usually, this reactivity on destination and service attributes is assessed using self-report questionnaires, which have raised some validity and reliability issues (Baumeister et al 2007, Cunha et al 2021. To overcome these limitations, the present study aimed to explore the possibility of using recordings of ECG and EDA in an ecological wine tourism setting to assess the psychophysiological activation during a wine cellar visit.…”

Wine experience scale: validating the behavior and motivations of Spanish wine tourists

“…This scale is innovative because it is the first to introduce the experience dimension. The literature allows to ensure the existence of measurement of wine product involvement (Bruwer and Buller, 2013), consumers’ motivators decision to purchase wine (Barber et al , 2006), vividness of wine imagery (Croijmans et al , 2019) and market for and issues involved in cocreating integral tourist experiences in rural wine destinations (Cunha et al , 2021).…”