Topic: Wine & Food Tourism and Festivals

Topic: Wine & Food Tourism and Festivals
EVALUATION REPORT OF A CELLAR DOOR ‘EXPERIENCE’

The purpose of this assignment is for the student to evaluate a personal, real-life wine tourism experience measured against certain theoretical concepts. Specific parameters make it possible for the student to gain insight into how theoretical concepts and reality intersect in the realm of the experiential.

TOPIC
A wine and food tourism destination should arguably strive towards supplying a visitor with a satisfactory experience or experiences. Much of this process relies on communication taking place in various forms, whether it involves a picture you see on TV, the people at the tasting counter, a display on a cellar door wall or a neat parking space (non-people factors). Emphasis on certain forms of communication can have an impact on the experience of the visitor. Such communication can therefore be specifically managed to ‘guide’ the visitor experience and make the most of the resources the cellar door and/or winery property has to offer.

Write an evaluation report on your own experience of a visit to a cellar door you have never visited before. Use the given parameters and report only on the following aspects of the topic:

Part A: Communication
How did the communication process related to the destination (involving both people and non-people factors) impact on your experience?

This part of the evaluation report should cover:
• the information search you as a potential visitor executed prior to the visit and the results evaluated in terms of what destination communications are possible in theory and what your could have access to.
• verbal communication that shaped your experience at cellar door during the time of the visit (including with staff and/or visitors other than your own group),
• non-people factors that could also ‘communicate’ about the destination in this context, for example the facility and amenities available, displays, merchandise, information like brochures or tasting notes and price lists available on site, the surrounding landscape/scenery, parking area, etc.
• options of future communication with the destination. Comment on the availability or not of such options.

Part B: Fulfilment of expectations
Report on whether your expectations as a visitor were fulfilled and what role the communication process played in this.