What lies behind the romance of the grape? a case-study of Wairarapa, New Zealand

Abstract

This thesis is a study of the consumer perspective of wine tourism. In order to gain a deeper insight and understanding of the consumer, wine tourism was set into the broader context of consumer culture, characteristic of the contemporary Western society. Referred to as the postmodern society, this is a society of signs and images, where goods and services are consumed for their symbolic value, rather than for utilitarian purposes. In this cultural context, identity is a central issue. Through a social science perspective, this study focused on the sociological understanding of the wine tourist's identity and social class, analysing his/her lifestyle and cultural capital. The psychological understanding of the wine tourist's self-identity was then studied through analyzing the self-concept and the internal struggles of the individual. The research was based on the empirical case study of Wairarapa which is a well-known wine region of New Zealand, situated close to the capital city of Wellington. This region followed the economic and political restructuring that took place at a national level in the late 1980s whereby traditional farming and agricultural regions became transformed through a tourism boom. Olive groves and vineyards have become icons of this region through its award-winning produce. The methodological approach used, through the interpretivist paradigm, was one of triangulation - self-administered questionnaire, participant observation, and focus groups. The survey and observation were carried out in selected vineyards of the Wairarapa wine region, and resulted in the identification of the profile characteristics of the market segment of visitors to the Wairarapa vineyards. The visitors were identified as urban professionals, in the higher income bracket, well educated, between 30 and 49 years old, with no children or young children at home, visiting vineyards as a couple, for romantic and learning purposes. This then informed the recruitment of the focus groups, which took place in Wellington, the residents from the capital city representing 70% of the visitors to the Wairarapa vineyards. This social group, the so-called 'new petite bourgeoisie', leads a hedonistic lifestyle, through the pleasure-seeking consumption of reading, cultural outings, going to restaurants, cafés, vineyards, shopping for fashionable clothes and furniture, and travel. Given the postmodern differentiation of social class through cultural capital, my discussion has shown that social standing is expressed through knowledge, language, and overall lifestyle. The internal balance and well-being of this social group is linked to self-fulfillment, the self holding a sacred place in the postmodern society, and the internal struggles are based around the dialectic of desire for consumption and fun, versus status seeking through enriching the individual's cultural capital by leading the particular lifestyle required. Aiming to explore what lies behind the romance of the grape, this project has broadened the definition of wine consumption, displaying issues of the culture of consumption, and has given respective marketing recommendations and implications.