Food and wine tourism: Challenges, issues and
opportuni6es TRC Symposium, Cur/n University, Margaret River
C. Michael Hall Department of Management, Marke/ng and Entrepreneurship, University of
Canterbury, New Zealand; Department of Geography, University of Oulu, Finland; School of Business & Economics, Linneaus University, Kalmar, Sweden; School of
Tourism and Hospitality, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. [email protected]
hRp://canterbury-‐nz.academia.edu/CMichaelHall
‘To the people, food is heaven’ (Hanshu, chapter 43, compiled up to about 115 by Ban Biao, Ban Gu,
and Ban Zhao)
• ‘A serious history of food culture should offer more than a chronicle of epicurean indulgence and should go beyond examining the social framework of nutri/on’ (Höllmann 2010)
• A serious account of Chinese food and wine tourism should also offer more than a chronicle of epicurean indulgence and go beyond promo/onal images and story telling to examine the advantages and disadvantages of the Chinese market to stakeholders in food and wine tourism.
• The advantages and disadvantages of food and wine tourism
• Contextualising Chinese food and wine culture and consump/on
• Chinese tourism • Adding value for whom? • Conclusions
Advantages and disadvantages of wine and food tourism
• Posi/on in the food, wine and tourism system is cri/cal to how you see the value of wine and food related tourism – as well as your capacity to benefit from it. What business are you actually in?
• Issue of how integrated are the food, wine, hospitality and tourism systems – especially at the local level, where most benefits may accrue
• How is success measured? Are both costs and benefits being measured? And at what scale?
Local food chains in the context of food, tourism and regional development
© Hall, C.M. & Gössling, S. 2016, ‘From food tourism and regional development to food, tourism and regional development: Themes and issues in contemporary foodscapes’, pp.3-‐57 in C.M. Hall and S. Gössling (eds). Food Tourism and Regional Development, Abingdon: Routledge.
The Advantages of Food and Wine Tourism for Producers (Depending on Market)
• Consumer exposure to product increased • Brand awareness and loyalty developed • Customer rela/onships created – see ‘behind the scenes’. Posi/ve customer rela/ons may lead to both direct sales and indirect sales through ‘word of mouth’
• Increased sales margins – direct sale (where the absence of distributor costs are not carried over en/rely to the consumer)
• New market/diversify sales base • Addi/onal sales outlet(s) – especially for smaller producers who cannot guarantee volume or constancy of supply
• Product and customer marke/ng intelligence • Educa/onal opportuni/es – developing the market
Disadvantages in Rela6on to ROI • Increased costs and management /me • Capital required • Inability to significantly increase sales or sell at an appropriate price, i.e. Because of loca/on, accessibility and expecta/ons arising from other cellar door experiences in region
• Opportunity costs • Dealing with the right market? • Seasonality issues • Biosecurity risks Source: Hall et al. 2000; Hall 1996, 2012
Advantages and Disadvantages for Local Tourism Businesses
• Spillover effects – customers as well as knowledge – very significant for restaurants, cafés, lodging, arts and crans
• ARrac/on/Ac/vity/Stop within an area/i/nerary (for tour groups also a poten/al toilet stop)
• Poten/al to extend length of stay/stop as well as return visit • Genera/on of des/na/on awareness and des/na/on recall • Seasonality issues • Possible disadvantage in some cases because of market mix
Market boLom line • While everyone must eat and drink not everyone is a food or
wine tourist • The commi9ed gastronomic tourist is a very small market
segment (no maRer what country they are from) • Time and economic budget issues – cri<cal in terms of
accessibility and rural loca<on (independent vs package) • There are a larger number of visitors interested in trying new
foods and wines • But because everyone must eat this raise significant issues as
to what is provided and available (and from a regional economic development perspec/ve to what extent is the selling of food to tourists linked to local food suppliers?)
• Even if tourists will only eat the familiar it s/ll creates opportunity for local food linkages and connec/ons. And this is one of the most impor/ng things to understand with respect to wine, food and tourism linkages from a regional perspec/ve.
Contribu6on to a region/des6na6on ü Associa/on with a quality product can build inferred brand
ü Can help differen/ate local products ü An aRrac/on that may help extend length of stay and increase visitor expenditure on local product; and contribute to exports
-‐ Regional brand values of food (including wine, spirits) can be very good for des/na/on and regional promo/on (BUT you need to be sure of how it fits with overall economic strategy) AND you need to make sure that the pieces of the brand fit together
-‐ A possible/some/me nega/ve is that focusing on food and tourism connec/ons may mean other opportuni/es are not explored or the market’s percep/on of a region is not properly understood.
Brand architecture of wine place brands
The difficult issue of inferred brands
© Hall, C.M. & Baird, T. 2014, Brand New Zealand wine: Architecture, posi/oning and vulnerability in the global marketplace, pp. 105-‐119 in Social, Cultural and Economic Impacts of Wine in New Zealand, ed. P. Howland. Routledge, London.
© Hall, C.M. & Baird, T. 2014, Brand New Zealand wine: Architecture, posi/oning and vulnerability in the global marketplace, pp. 105-‐119 in Social, Cultural and Economic Impacts of Wine in New Zealand, ed. P. Howland. Routledge, London.
Contextualising Chinese food and wine culture and consump6on I
• The problem of generalisa/on (and geographic market segmenta/on)
• The Land of the Five Flavours: For around the past 2,000 years the five flavours (sour, biRer, sweet, pungent and salty) have been regarded as a general framework for Chinese cuisine (wood, fire, earth, metal, water)
• Or Eight?: Sichuan, Hunan, Guangdong, Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Fujian, and Zhejiang
• Shanghai (east – sour), Canton (south – sweet), Sichuan (west – spicy), and Beijing (north – salty)
Contextualising Chinese food and wine culture and consump6on II
• Alcohol has a long (and glorious) history in Chinese cuisine and culture – but not wine
• Associated with the elite • Probably first recorded in the Middle Kingdom in 223 during the Wei Dynasty (edict from Emperor Wen extolling its virtues), although men/on from 126BC when General Zhang Qian returned from a diploma/c mission
• Tang Dynasty • Modern China – early-‐mid 19th century on
Contextualising Chinese food and wine culture and consump6on III
• The social context of alcohol consump/on is extremely important – Tradi/onal fes/vals and holidays – Happiness drink at weddings the sadness drink at funerals – The forging of social and business bonds (drinking games) – A shared meal is “the visible manifesta/on of the harmony which should exist between family and friends”
• Gin giving • Con/nuity and change in Chinese food culture
Contextualising Chinese food and wine culture and consump6on IV
• Interna/onalisa/on and globalisa/on • Trade • Growth of the Chinese diaspora • From China to Chinatown (and back) • Internal migra/on • Student mobility • Cosmopolitanism • The accrual of cultural capital and the gaining of cultural dis/nc/on: – ‘the capacity to behave properly and knowledgeably in public, to exercise discrimina/ng taste when selec/ng places to go out and eat, and to facilitate conversa/on about and evalua/on of culinary maRers’
Contemporary Chinese wine market • China becomes biggest market for red wine, with 1.86bn boRles sold in 2013
• More a maRer of cultural sensibili/es than taste/quality – The colour red is considered lucky in China and is also affiliated with the Communist government, while white is associated with death and is predominantly seen at funerals.
• Rela/vely low value • Low wine involvement • Growth in pres/ge purchases as well • Increased trade access for Australian wine
Chinese Tourism • HSBC (2014) research of affluent Chinese has found Australia to be their third most likely travel des/na/on, behind only France and the USA
• Greater diversity in market over /me • However… everybody wants in! – Similar approaches both within Australia and interna/onally
– Food and wine a common element in posi/oning for the Chinese market
Chinese Visitors & Canadian Ice Wine • Chinese tourists prefer high end wine products: It is the #1 export des/na/on of Canadian Icewine, valued at $6.7M in 2014
• According to the Canadian Tourism Commission (2015), Icewine is one of the top 3 gins that Chinese visitors bring home from Canada
CHINESE VISITORS TO INNISKILLIN, ONTARIO • 10% of all winery visitors are from mainland China • 90% purchase Icewine following a winery tour • Average winery purchase is $500 per group of 2-‐10 people • Most likely to make purchases in the $1 000 -‐ $3 000 range, than any other visitor segments
Adding Value for Who? • Consumer exposure to product increased? Yes • Brand awareness and loyalty developed Which brand? Loyalty unknown
• Customer rela/onships created Are the structures in place to create long-‐term customer rela/onships? Probably not?
• Increased sales margins direct sales are occurring • New market/diversify sales base Only for some wineries • Addi/onal sales outlet(s) – especially for smaller producers who cannot guarantee volume or constancy of supply. Chinese market probably not suitable
• Product and customer marke/ng intelligence Poor intelligence gathering
• Educa/onal opportuni/es Yes, but can interest be converted?
Is Chinese Wine Tourism Fad or Fashion? • Fads: refer to sudden changes that onen spread quickly and fade away rapidly; appear to be random and impossible to predict; fads are not a mark of cultural capital – Is it just a marke/ng/research fad?
• fashion and innova/on – Both fashions and innova/ons refer to change, and they replace or complement something that already exists with something new. However, compared with fashion, innova/on alters social prac/ces in a deeper way and has longer-‐las/ng effects.
– change in fashion does not necessarily imply improvement, whereas it does for innova/on.
Conclusions • Becoming a social prac/ce takes /me and a range of ins/tu/ons and systems need to be in place
• To what extent is awareness of Chinese wine tourism a func/on of the tour market/ADS?
• Unless you have dense networks of actors at the local and regional level you are not maximising the benefits of wine and food tourism.
• These dense networks must also be extended transna/onally in order to gain the benefits of interna/onal tourism visita/on – do you sell your wine in the countries where the tourist comes from?
• Can you put to much emphasis on high status wine at the expense of other dimensions of the des/na/on/regional offer?
Conclusions • There are major research issues to be dealt with • Most research does not deal with regionalism in Chinese food culture
• Inadequate research undertaken with respect to social context of wine consump/on and purchase
• More research required in terms of lifestyle and social prac/ces
• Time budget/accessibility issues • With respect to knowledge transfer there is a real need to bear in mind the big picture