Istrian Malvasia as an attribute of Istria County’s tourist product

Ana Težak Damijanić, Anita Silvana Ilak Peršurić, Ninoslav Luk

Institute of Agriculture and Tourism Poreč (Croatia)
Tel: +385 52 408 300. Fax: +385 52 431 659, tezak@iptpo.hr

INTRODUCTION
 Wine has long been associated to Mediterranean dating from ancient Greeks to present time, so in Istria County, as a Mediterranean destination, beside
the local food offer, very important gastronomy segment is wine.
 From a tourism perspective, wine represents an important component of the attractiveness of a destination, and can be a major motivating factor for
visitors but it is also a way for the wine industry to build up relations with consumers who can experience the wine first handed.
 Wine also presents an important segment in destination management of Istria County (Ružić et al. 2006:103) and tourists especially prefer the
autochthonous wines, such as Malvasia istarska (white) and Teran, Borgonja and Hrvatica (red). Istrian Malvasia is the most commonly produced wine in
Istria County (Ilak Peršurić and Težak, 2011) and it is also the most frequently present wine in restaurants in Istria County (Težak et al., 2009).
 The purpose of this paper is to examine wine as a basis for developing new tourist products. The main aim of this paper is to segment potential
consumers of tourist product based on Istrian Malvasia.

METHODOLOGY
 A study focused on behaviour of visitors attending wine exhibitions, as a
part of a research financed by IPA/EFRR Operational Programme Table 1. Responders characteristics based on their interest for wine
Slovenia-Croatia 2007-2013, was conducted in May 2014. tours
 Responders were visitors of 18 years of age or older who attended the
wine exhibition Vinistra in Poreč, Croatia Responders No interest Undecided Interest Total (%)
 Data was gathered using questionnaire consisting of 23 questions divided characteristics (%) (%) (%)
into four sections: 1) responders’ preferences about wine consumption Age (M, SD) (25.9, 7.59) (42.2, 14.65) (31.8, (34.4,
and purchase, 2) questions related to Istrian Malvasia, 3) question 13.01) 14.11)
focused on certain aspects of wine exhibition and 4) respondents’ 18-24 5.1 1.0 26.3 32.3
characteristics 25-34 2.0 12.1 18.2 32.3
 Data was processed using univariate statistics for general description of
35-44 1.0 5.1 6.1 12.1
the sample and bivariate statistics was used for segmentation of the 45-54 0.0 4.0 7.1 11.1
visitors (one-way analysis of variance and Tukey’s Post Hoc Test). 55+ 0.0 7.1 5.1 12.1
Responders were classified into three groups (no interest, undecided and
Gender
interest) based on their interest for wine tour packages. Importance of
Female 1.9 10.4 24.5 36.8
various buying determinants for Istrian Malvasia were measured on a
Male 8.5 17.9 36.8 63.2
five-point Likert scale (one = "strongly unimportant" to five = "strongly
Education level
important").
Basic 0.0 1.0 0.0 1.0
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION High school 2.9 13.5 22.1 38.5
Higher education 5.8 14.4 40.4 60.6
 A total of 105 responders were taken into analysis.
Occupation
 Responders interested in wine tours usually placed higher importance on
Self-employed,
various buying determinants for Istrian Malvasia with two exceptions i.e.
freelance 1.9 4.8 11.5 18.3
price and discounts.
 Price was equally important to both responders interested in wine tours Manager 1.0 0.0 7.7 8.7
Employee 2.9 16.3 21.2 40.4
and those undecided, while it was rather unimportant to those responders
Student 3.8 1.0 17.3 22.1
with no interest in wine tours.
 Discounts were more important to those responders who were not able to Other 1.0 5.8 3.8 10.6
state their interest to wine tours compared to the other two groups. Consumption of Istrian Malvasia
 The three groups of responders differed significantly with respect to Few times a year and
importance they placed on micro-region, awards, quality and discounts. less 3.9 11.7 17.5 33.0
 Group interested in wine tours placed higher importance on micro-region Few times a month 4.9 8.7 17.5 31.1
and awards than group not interested in wine tours. Few times a week 1.9 3.9 15.5 21.4
 Quality was more important to group interested in wine tours compared to Every day and more 0.0 3.9 10.7 14.6
groups of responders who stated no interest for wine tours or were
undecided.

50thCroatian & 10th International Symposium on Agriculture, Opatija, February 16-20 2015