ABSTRACT
This chapter presents details of food and beverage travel consumption behavior among samples of American and French wine travelers and compares their activities to other leisure travelers and describes a large overlap between wine activities and other gastronomic activities. The terms ‘culinary tourism’ and ‘gastronomy tourism’ are used interchangeably to include both food and beverage activities that someone may participate in while travelling. The popular activities for American wine travelers were: visiting a winery or wine trail; going to a restaurant for a memorable experience; and eating at a fine dining restaurant. Wine is often considered an upscale activity enjoyed by wealthy individuals, and wine marketing has often focused on exposing wine travelers to other high-end culinary experiences. The chapter provides evidence that wine travelers frequently have an interest in more culinary activities than just wine consumption. More investigation of connections between wine traveler motivations and gastronomic activities could extend wine tourism research from both theoretical and destination marketing perspectives.
