Purpose: This study explores winery visitors' attitudes towards terroir significance as well as perceptions of terroir for marketing communication and as a competitive advantage for wineries, and uses these as a basis to examine intergenerational cohort differences. Methods:An online questionnaire was distributed using criteria for inclusion and employing a non-probability sampling frame. Over a seven-month period, 1174 questionnaires from members of four different generational cohorts were obtained and statistically analyzed. Descriptive statistics, factor, reliability analysis and One-way ANOVA were used. Results: On a 7-point Likert scale, cohorts in all cases, somewhat agree with the statements regarding winery and wine terroir. Cohort differences towards the three dimensions “Attitudes towards terroir significance”, “Terroir as a competitive advantage” and “Terroir for marketing communication”. were detected for the first and last dimension, whereas Baby Boomers and Generation Y had more positive attitudes and perceptions than Generation X and Generation Z. Implications: Acknowledging actual and potential wine tourists’ attitudes towards terroir significance and perception of terroir as a competitive advantage tool and for marketing communication, wineries may implement effective marketing strategies in order to survive and thrive in the current competitive wine tourism market. 

SUBMITTED: OCT 2023, REVISION SUBMITTED: JAN 2024, ACCEPTED: FEB 2024, REFEREED ANONYMOUSLY JEL Classification: L66, M3, M31