{"id":7483,"date":"2025-10-16T10:24:38","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T10:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/global-travel-news\/raising-a-glass-to-chinas-wine-market\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T10:24:38","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T10:24:38","slug":"raising-a-glass-to-chinas-wine-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/global-travel-news\/raising-a-glass-to-chinas-wine-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Raising a Glass to China\u2019s Wine Market"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Raising<\/a>Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, October 16, 2025 \/ TRAVELINDEX \/ As wine consumption in Europe declines, Asia is picking up the baton. In particular, Chinese consumers are importing a growing volume of wines from around the world<\/a>, but little is known about how country of origin influences their decisions. This is the research gap recently addressed by Ms Yichen Zhou and Professor Lisa Gao of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). Their large-scale questionnaire study reveals how country-of-origin information interacts with Chinese consumers\u2019 perception of brand image and wine quality to influence purchase intention, providing invaluable insights for marketers.<\/div>\n
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As a drink with a history dating back to antiquity, wine is freighted with various meanings and connotations in consumers\u2019 minds. All food and beverage products have social implications beyond their utilitarian function, but this is especially so for wine, the classic accompaniment to high living and an item that in China must necessarily be imported. \u201cAs wine<\/a> is gradually becoming a symbol of sophistication and growing wealth,\u201d say the researchers, \u201cit becomes increasingly appealing to [Chinese] consumers\u201d.<\/div>\n
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While China is a vast market, surprisingly little research has investigated the factors that influence Chinese consumers\u2019 decision making around imported wine purchases. \u201cChinese consumers have diverse backgrounds and segmentations\u201d, write the authors, \u201cmaking their perceptions and preferences valuable in guiding product development and marketing initiatives\u201d. As China is also one of the world\u2019s fastest-growing wine markets, there is an urgent industry need for an in-depth study of the considerations that shape individual consumers\u2019 eventual choices.<\/div>\n
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Traditionally, wine in China may have been best understood as a luxury good. \u201cChinese wine consumers tend to favour imported wines<\/a> for gift-giving purposes\u201d, the researchers report, \u201cas these wines symbolize premium quality and prestigious social status\u201d. However, this trend appears to be shifting, as consumers may be becoming more price-sensitive. Marketers should therefore be aware of both the prestige value of foreign wine as a wealth signal and the appeal of specific brands to consumers who assess a price\u2013quality trade-off.<\/div>\n
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As wine evolves from status symbol into well-appreciated culinary product in China, the marketing role of its country of origin (COO) becomes more complex. Yet \u201cwhile COO plays a major role in Chinese consumers\u2019 wine purchases\u201d, the authors note, \u201cthere is little previous research into the marketing of COO images for wine in developing markets\u201d. We still know little about the specific importance of wine brands in China \u2013 in contrast with countries with a long-established dominance in the global wine trade, such as France.<\/div>\n
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Advertising the COO of a product activates a set of specific connotations in the consumer\u2019s mind, summarised by the researchers as \u201ca psychological network of cognitive and affective connections associated with a particular country\u201d. These country-related attributes range from politics, culture and economy to language and even people. Collectively, the effect of learning a product\u2019s COO is to induce a set of expectations of the product\u2019s intrinsic attributes and overall quality, based on beliefs about that country\u2019s level of development.<\/div>\n
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These associations and their effects on purchase intention are summarised by the stereotype content model (SCM). Wine purchasing decisions have been described as \u201ccomplex and difficult\u201d, reflecting the numerous variables involved \u2013 style, year, terroir and so on. Hence, in the absence of other guidance, consumers may rely on positive stereotypes of a wine\u2019s COO to reduce the risk of a poor decision. This is known as the \u201chalo effect\u201d. The researchers thus settled on the SCM as a suitable theoretical framework for investigating COO effects in China\u2019s imported-wine market.<\/div>\n
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To analyse the influence of perceived COO on Chinese consumers\u2019 wine purchase intentions, the researchers focused on two aspects of country-level stereotyping: warmth and competence. \u201cConsumers\u2019 perceptions of a country\u2019s warmth\u201d, they explain, \u201care defined as the degree to which a country is perceived as kind, warm, friendly and cooperative\u201d. Stereotypes of competence, meanwhile, denote that a country is seen as capable and effective due to its technological, economic and political development, implying that its export products are of reliably high quality and safety.<\/div>\n
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The researchers thus hypothesised that the perceived warmth and competence of a COO would influence consumers\u2019 perception of quality and, in turn, their purchase intention. To test this, based on the SCM, they selected Germany as a typical \u201chigh-competence, low-warmth\u201d country and Greece as a country of low competence but high warmth. A sample of 298 Chinese consumers \u2013 with various levels of self-reported wine knowledge \u2013 then answered a survey exploring how their perceptions of the warmth and competence of a wine COO related to the wine brand\u2019s perceived warmth and competence, and thence to its perceived quality and their willingness to purchase it.<\/div>\n
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Analysis of the survey results validated all the researchers\u2019 hypotheses. Perceptions of high COO competence fed through to perceptions of high competence of wine brands from that COO. Brand competence was in turn associated with perceived quality, and higher quality led to greater purchase intention. Warmth played a similar role, with a significant sequential association from perceived COO warmth to brand warmth to brand quality to purchase intention. This is not merely an abstract finding, as the surveys also confirmed that Germany was perceived as more competent and Greece as warmer.<\/div>\n
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These findings represent a novel insight into the value of country image in marketing wine imports in China. To gain market share, wine importers need to optimise the segmentation and positioning of wine in the evolving and increasingly brand-driven Chinese market. The researchers argue that \u201cforeign companies operating in new world wine countries such as China can achieve this by developing communication strategies that emphasize the positive image of their COO and the wine brand\u201d.<\/div>\n
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Moreover, the implications of the study extend beyond wine retailers themselves. In countries and regions known for their wine production, tourism destination marketers could capitalise on their reputation for warmth and\/or competence, setting up an association between these perceived qualities and local wine products to entice travellers. Winery tourism is an established trend, and it could be strengthened by marketing that emphasises the unique landscapes and winemaking traditions of places as diverse as France, the US, Australia and Argentina.<\/div>\n
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At the individual firm level, the authors advise that \u201chospitality businesses such as restaurants, hotels and resorts can leverage the COO\u2019s image to enhance their wine programs and culinary offerings\u201d. The importance of COO image in wine appreciation also has implications for distributors\u2019 online strategy. Social media, for example, offer an array of opportunities to not only market products directly but also educate Chinese consumers about wine through narratives that link positive COO stereotypes with engaging information about the people and processes behind winemaking.<\/div>\n
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Wine, a complex product steeped in tradition and prestige, is already big business in China, but it has considerable potential to grow further. With major producers around the world competing for a slice of the Chinese market, Zhou and Gao\u2019s study will be invaluable for marketers. Based on their findings, we can expect to see Chinese consumers increasingly using COO information to help them navigate the complexities of choosing wine, while distributors may use messaging around the positive attributes of COOs as the core of their strategies to communicate with specific market segments.<\/div>\n
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Yichen Zhou and Lisa Gao (2024).<\/strong> The Influence of Perceived Country of Origin Image on Chinese Consumers\u2019 Purchase Intention of Imported Wine. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management<\/em>, Vol. 36, No. 8, 2870\u20132886.<\/div>\n
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Press contact : Ms Tiffany Chan, Marketing Manager<\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0School of Hotel and Tourism Management<\/div>\n
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Telephone : (852) 3400 2293<\/div>\n
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E-mail : tiffany-sm.chan@polyu.edu.hk<\/a><\/div>\n
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Website : www.polyu.edu.hk\/shtm\/<\/a><\/div>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, October 16, 2025 \/ TRAVELINDEX \/ As wine consumption in Europe declines, Asia is picking up the baton. In particular, Chinese consumers are importing a growing volume of wines from around the world, but little is known about how country of origin influences their decisions. This is the research gap …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2315,37,14,2316,1966],"class_list":["post-7483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-global-travel-news","tag-global-travelnews","tag-news","tag-travelindex","tag-travelindex-media-group","tag-untourism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}