Pairing Co-Creation with Food and Wine Experiences—A Holistic Perspective of Tourist Experiences in Dão, a Portuguese Wine Region

Abstract

The literature increasingly recognises the value of food and wine tourism for destinations’ competitiveness. Given the scarcity of conceptual and empirical studies on co-creation within this field of special interest tourism, this paper aims to enhance the understanding of how visitors and supply agents co-create value in food and wine experiences, by analysing such experiences in the Portuguese wine region Dão. For this purpose, a qualitative study was undertaken, analysing visitors’ and tourism agents’ perceptions regarding five food and wine experiences: food and wine pairing, wine tasting with food pairing, harvesting, a culinary workshop and a wine workshop. The discourse obtained via in-depth semi-structured interviews from sixteen visitors and three supply agents was content analysed, supported by QSR NVivo 12. The results show that dimensions of the conceptually defined co-creation experience were, indeed, perceived in the visitors’ discourse, namely interaction (the most prominent in wine tasting and harvesting), active participation, engagement and personalization (the latter least reported). Sensorial engagement emerged from the discourse as an additional dimension that deserved attention. The agents’ perspective confirmed the importance of these dimensions in experience design. This paper identifies theoretical and managerial contributions for destination management organisations, wine tourism agents and marketers, as well as relevant paths for future research in this field.