An Investigation into Motivations of Visitors to the Traditional Harvest Wine Festivals “Vinobraní” in the Czech Republic

Abstract

This research investigates the motivation of visitors to the traditional Harvest Wine Festivals in the Czech Republic. Harvest Wine Festivals are traditional autumn festivities hosted annually by communities mainly in the wine region of South Moravia. Furthermore, the research explores whether the motivations of visitors are influenced by demographic variables and to what extent cultural identity and wine are important to the visitors. The review of literature introduces the concept of motivation and highlights the importance of its research to the festival organisers. Motivations of festival visitors are discussed with a reference made to the demographic variables, cultural identity and wine. Moreover, the literature has been concluded as limited in the area of traditional Harvest Wine Festivals in Europe which mainly applies to the Czech Republic. Due to the dominance of quantitative research found in the literature; the mixed method strategy has been adopted. An online survey and semi-structured interviews were conducted to gain more in-depth data and address the question “why” visitors attend Harvest Wine Festivals. A number of 188 survey responses and 4 semi-structured interviews were collected. The researcher explored five motivational dimensions including “Socialisation”, “Family togetherness”, “Cultural identity”, “Wine” and “Event novelty” consisting of twenty-five motivational items. The following five items have emerged; “Spending free leisure time with family”, “Relief from everyday routine”, “Spending time with friends”, “Gaining new experience” and “Mental and physical rest”. Additional two motivational items “Entertainment” and “Travel” were discovered. Significant differences in motivations were found in demographic variables such as gender or place of residence. Although participants of this study expressed an interest in cultural identity and wine, it has been concluded that visitors were significantly motivated by more general factors including “Family togetherness”, “Socialisation” or “Event novelty”. Based on the discussion of findings it has been noted that this study has a few limitations and further research opportunities are available.