Factors influencing the consumers’ expenditure on wine according to their own expectations in a tourism perspective: a statistical analysis

Abstract

The work deals with the theme of consumer behavior and preferences in the wine sector in a tourism perspective. In particular, it aims to analyze the consumer’s propensity to spend a certain amount of money on the purchase of wine, based on a set of variables arising from the administration of a questionnaire. A sample with different characteristics has been analyzed, coming from different sources: some subjects were reached through specialized wine blogs, others in physical wine shops, others through non-specialized social networks. Each subject was asked to indicate the specific importance she attributes to different factors in the choice of a wine (i.e.: suggestions from friends, reviews in magazines, advice from specialized blogs, price, brand, previous experience). Each of these attributes is here considered as a possible RRS, leading to a satisfaction of consumer’s personal expectations. Two statistical techniques have been used to analyze data: the logistic regression and the classification tree. The results show clear correlations between the propensity to spend a high figure with some categorical data, in particular the gender and the source of the respondent. In addition, the experience variable has a positive correlation with expenditure, while the variables related to the impact of advice received from friends and price have a negative correlation. The work, through a statistical approach, links consumers’ behavior, preferences and expectations with expenditure propensity in the wine sector. Hence, it includes practical implications for companies to better understand the drivers of consumers’ choices and their propensity to spend in wine to meet their expectations.