Winery Tasting Room Impacts During COVID-19 – Who is Coming for a Visit?

As we continue to share data from the first COVID-19 tasting room survey we conducted in March 2021, in this article we describe:

• How those who visited winery tasting rooms since 2018 differed from those who had not visited,
• What prevented prior tasting room visitors from returning to tasting rooms after the shelter-in-place was enacted in mid-March 2020,
• Activities that those who visited a tasting room between mid-March 2020 and March 2021 participated in during their visit,
• How non-visitors differed from those who had visited, and
• How not being vaccinated influenced willingness to visit a tasting room. 

Previous articles in this series focused on overall research objectives, consumer perceptions of COVID-19 precautions in winery tasting rooms, and changes in wine consumption and purchasing.

How visitors and non-visitors differed

Of our participants (n=847), 42% (n=352) had not visited a tasting room in the region between January 2018 and when they took the survey in March 2021. Slightly less than a third, 28% (n=241), had visited between 2018 and mid-March 2020, and an additional 30% (n=253) had visited since mid-March 2020.    

Compared to non-visitors, more visitors:

• Had incomes of $150,000 or greater,
• had post-graduate degrees,
• lived in a household with one other adult,
• were high-frequency wine consumers (drank wine more than once a week), and
• increased their participation in virtual tastings since mid-March 2020

 There were no differences between age ranges/generations, the presence of children in the household, or gender. 

Reasons why participants chose not to return to tasting rooms between mid-March 2020 and March 2021

In January 2020, Nielson CGA released a report that stated that many U.S. consumers did not return to restaurants and bars since the beginning of the pandemic (Nielson, 2020). The Nielsen report indicated that 50% of their respondents selected the options, "I don’t feel safe going out at the moment," and "I don’t feel safe being in close proximity to strangers in these places," as to why they had not returned. Few selected: "I don’t feel comfortable with other people preparing my food/drinks" (16%), "my experience when visiting a bar or restaurant will not be the same as it was before" (12%), and "I have realized I don't need these experiences as often" (11%).

We adapted the survey questions and presented the 241 participants who indicated they had not returned to a winery tasting room since mid-March 2021 with selected reasons to learn why they had not visited since the beginning of the pandemic (Figure 1).

As with the Nielson survey, the concern that the greatest percentage of our participants selected was "I don’t feel safe being in close proximity to strangers in these places," chosen by 53% of these respondents. The next most selected reason, which we added to those published in the Nielsen report, was "I have not been traveling for leisure during the pandemic," selected by 51%. Fewer of those who had not returned to a winey tasting room since mid-March 2020 selected: "I realized that I didn’t need such experiences as often," (8%), and "tasting rooms I visit/would like to visit do not take enough COVID-19 precautions" (3%).

*Participants were allowed to select all response that applied

Figure 1. Reasons why those who visited a winery tasting room between 20218 and mid-March 2020 did not return after mid-March 2020 (n=41)

While slightly over a quarter of our participants indicated that some factor(s) prevented them from visiting a winery tasting room for the period of mid-March 2020 and when they participated in the survey in March 2021, a similar number of participants (n=253) had visited during that period. Overall, 45% of these participants responded that they purchased a bottle(s) of wine to consume off-premise, 40% purchased a glass or bottle of wine to drink at the tasting room, and slightly less than a third selected each of the following actions/activities:

1. purchased a flight of wines that were poured and served at one time,
2. dined at/ate at the tasting room, and
3. attended a small group tour or tasting. 

Figure 2. The top five activities that respondents who visited winery tasting rooms since mid-March 2021 participated in during their visits(n=253)*

Did unvaccinated survey participants avoid visiting tasting rooms?

It should be noted that at the time of the survey, the availability of COVID-19 vaccines was limited; however, 45% of participants (n=381) were vaccinated. Nine percent (n=79) did not plan to get vaccinated, another 9% (n=86) were unsure about doing so, and 36% (n=301) were not yet vaccinated but wanted to when eligible. Those who planned to get vaccinated were asked if not being vaccinated was preventing them from visiting a winery tasting room. Fifty-four percent of these participants responded "yes," that not being vaccinated prevented them from visiting a winery tasting room.

Conclusion

Our survey results show that respondents who had visited tasting rooms since mid-March 2020, compared to those who had not, are more educated with higher income and more frequent wine drinkers interested in participating in virtual tastings. Most of the respondents who visited tasting rooms since the pandemic purchased bottles to consume somewhere else; this was followed by wine consumption (glass or bottle) in the tasting room.

At the time of the survey, vaccinations were not widely available. Our results show that 45% of respondents planning to get vaccinated, their vaccination status prevented them from visiting a winery tasting room. "Not feeling safe in close proximity to strangers" was the main reason for respondents that did not visit tasting rooms since the start of the pandemic. This result aligned with the previous Nielson survey findings.

In conclusion, winery tasting rooms must act based on consumer concerns.  For example, staff should wear masks, offer visitors masks, and constantly disinfect high traffic areas. These precautions are outlined in our previous article: Winery Tasting Room Precautions During COVID-19 – What Customers are Looking For. In addition, continue to use social media to connect with consumers when they are not at your tasting room by posting updates and offering online tastings or educational events.