Wine Tourism Marketing: a New Menu of Bloggers; Their Credentials and Recommendations

Byron Marlowe

Wine Blogging is a technologically-driven communication of increasing influence on wine tourism destinations. Through investigating and looking into factors, if any, which drive or influence wine bloggers in how they formulate their recommendations for wine destinations I've investigated bloggers' wine certifications, years of professional wine experience and home geographic location. In personal interviews I've investigated the travel experience of each blogger within the last month and other influences on wine destination recommendations. The study involved thirty US wine bloggers, selected from a group of Twitter bloggers, who have at least five hundred followers. Data was collected and analyzed from their blogs posted and personal interviews over a forty-five day period.