Unveiling Phygital Luxury Experience in Wine Hospitality: Exploring theIntegration of Digital Technologies in Wine Luxury Tourism

The convergence of technology, and wine hospitality has created unprecedented opportunities for enhancing the overall tourist experience, particularly in the luxury segment. Digital technologies represented a valuable asset for wine hospitality actors especially during the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic (Gastaldello et al., 2022), when luxury hospitality businesses increased their investment in Industry 4.0 technologies to create hybrid experiences by mixing physical and digital experiential components to provide seamless and personalized services to luxury tourists (Willersdorf et al., 2020). Luxury is the combination of tangible and intangible elements, including exclusivity, exceptional quality, product customization, sustainability, authenticity, rarity, status signaling, and price premiums (Atwal and Williams, 2009; Sharma et al., 2022; Kapferer and Valette-Florence, 2021). Luxury also brings out the concept of luxury experience (Holmqvist et al., 2020) which is co-created through the interaction between consumers and luxury brands (Atwal and Williams, 2009). In this regard, in recent years, there has been growing support for the concept of customer experience as a new level of value creation for businesses and consumers. The focus has shifted from creating memorable experiences to providing outstanding customer experiences at every moment of the relationship with the supplier (Schmitt, 2020; Chang et al., 2020; Skandalis et al., 2019). The literature identifies three crucial factors in determining the wine tourism experience: the wine product, the appeal of the tourist destination, and the cultural product. The application of the experience economy model represents a valuable tool for studying cellar door, and wine tourism activities, and for improving the ability of wineries to create value through the design and staging of customized experiences, defined as "outstanding” (Santos et al., 2019). In particular, it can enable the identification of business elements that can improve the relationship with the visitor, and provide operational proposals, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, to combine the "4Es'' with appropriate marketing tools (Sigala, 2018). Innovations such as smart devices, virtual reality, intelligent systems, and blockchain have been proposed as catalysts for improving wine experiences, technology where integrated in the wine experience to positively impacting visitors' outcomes and creating additional intangible value for visitors. Few are the experimentations aimed at integrating digital technologies within the wine experience, such as social media (Alebaki et al., 2022), virtual tours, and virtual tasting using Augmented Reality (AR) to increase visitors' involvement with the product and the place (Wen and Leung, 2021). Wine producers also resort to connectivity to enhance data collection and improve service quality (Lewis et al., 2021). Research has explored the motivations of consumers visiting wineries or regions and using technology, highlighting the importance of experiences, education, entertainment, relaxation, and social activities in the wine tourism context (Sarri et al., 2020). Technologies increase visitor engagement, influence purchase decisions, evoke positive emotions, and impact taste perceptions. However, some visitors prioritize authenticity and focus on exploring the gastronomic heritage, local food, wines, and collecting memorabilia (Bruwer et al., 2018). Despite research on wine tourism and the adoption of technology in various countries (Alonso et al., 2015; Bruwer et al., 2018; Charters and Menival, 2011). The digitization of the wine hospitality experience is of growing interest to wine producers and stakeholders, nevertheless it remains unexplored from a theoretical point of view. Moreover, notwithstanding the relevance of the luxury wine hospitality (hereinafter as LWH), the studies that deepen understanding about the characteristics of LWH are limited (Zainurin et al., 2021). Given the steady increase in global luxury tourism segment (Statista, 2022), its economic significance (Fondazione Altagamma, 2021), the relevance of the digital transformation in the lives of consumers (Sheth, 2020), and businesses (Bresciani et al., 2016), it becomes paramount to deepen the knowledge of wine experience within luxury wine hospitality, under the twofold perspective of physical and digital experiences. The study aims to bridge these gaps and contribute to this increasingly relevant area of research by exploring the integration of technology in luxury wine hospitality. The goal is to build an interpretive framework of the phygital luxury experience in wine hospitality by considering both physical and digital experiences provided by producers, to understand the typologies of experiences created, and how digital technology intervenes in the design of the experience.