Towards the Implementation of Digital Through Wifi and IoT in Wine Tourism: Perspectives from Professionals of Wine and Tourism

This research intends to fill the gap on holistic customer experiences in the offline and online retail environments helping understand the developing omni channel business environment, through the lens of smart tourism. Smart wine-tourism consists in using digital technologies such as Wifi and IoT to target nearby wine tourists and invite them to enjoy a wine experience while they visit rural areas. To compensate for these gaps, we have conceptualized customer experiences in offline and online retail environments through a literature review. Twenty semi-direct interviews were conducted using an interview guide and analyzed thanks to manual coding. Findings and analysis from winery and wine tourism professionals as well as wine consumer opinions on digital connectivity are presented. The research results provide insight into the different aspects of what a holistic online and offline customer experience means. The results highlight the importance of providing Internet access, thanks to Wifi terminals and IoT along the roads in touristic areas, to facilitate winery visits and or other touristic activities. Wifi could provide the digital infrastructure necessary for businesses to target tourists through location-based systems (LBS) and push notifications. This research is limited to the Sonoma County, California wine tourism destinations. It uses coding rather than analytical tools enabling frequencies of occurrence in a more systematic manner to be discovered. It is wine oriented and feedback from other professionals of the food industry would be valuable.