Travel has become a synonym of living memorable and enjoyable experiences. Co-creation centralizes tourists’ role in the creation of value that results from the interaction with other destination stakeholders and the physical environment. Within the wider destination experience, the growing interest tourists show regarding the food and wine experience is notorious, due to its distinctive, multisensory and engaging nature. However, conceptual and empirical studies on co-creation of experiences in food and wine contexts are still scarce. To address this gap, this conceptual study presents an integrative literature review of 118 articles focusing on co-creation in tourism experiences, aiming at understanding what conceptual and empirical studies have been developed in the field, and identifying the most representative dimensions of tourism co-creation, both in general tourism experience and in food and wine experiences, in particular. Based on study findings, a critical analysis is presented along with a novel framework and definition of co-creative tourism experiences, with particular relevance to food and wine tourism. Key dimensions of co-creation in food and wine experiences, namely interaction, engagement, participation and personalization, are identified as relevant for promoting involving and immersive experiences. Theoretical and managerial contributions to destination managers and local stakeholders are also discussed.

Wine tourism experiences promote not only rural territories’ distinctive wine and food products, but also their local identity, natural and cultural resources and historical features that add value and uniqueness to tourist experiences. The new experience paradigm applied to tourism invites stakeholders to rethink how and why tourists travel and live their experiences on holidays. Interaction and engagement are components of co-creation, stressing the central role of visitors sharing value creation with other destination stakeholders. The present qualitative study uses discourses from 22 semi-structured in-depth interviews with visitors to Portugal’s Bairrada wine region. Content analysis, carried out with QRS Nvivo 12, shows that interaction enhances wine and food experiences in several contexts. Storytelling seems to contribute to value creation, with stories co-created between winemakers or other destination stakeholders and visitors. Apart from this social interaction, visitors’ physical interaction with natural and cultural destination features is also revealed as a crucial part of wine tourism experiences. Study results suggest the importance of DMOs, facilitating co-creation experiences in wine regions, contributing to visitor satisfaction and loyalty.

Wine tourism in rural territories, sometimes organised along wine routes, increasingly attracts visitors, tourism agents, wine producers and those responsible for developing rural territories. Wine tourism is located at the intersection of two distinct business sectors: the agribusiness-oriented wine production and the hedonic service/experience-oriented tourism activity. From the tourism perspective, the visitor experience is paramount and requires an understanding of its nature, conditioning factors and possible outcomes. This study analyses tourist experiences of the Bairrada wine route/Portugal, as reported by regional visitors on TripAdvisor. Results reveal not only the overall quite positive evaluation of these experiences, but also the importance of the aesthetic and educational experience dimensions, when applying Pine and Gilmore’s consumer experience framework. Diverse experience contexts contribute to a rich terroir experiencescape, where contents are far from limited to wine, wine cellars or wineries. These contexts seem to be connected distinctly to diverse experience dimensions, whose analysis should help regional developers understand the role of core resources and conditions for attracting, satisfying and delighting visitors. Additional understanding of the relationship between experience dimensions and outcomes, namely satisfaction and destination loyalty, should further help develop wine destinations more successfully.

Gastronomy has become a distinctive tourism product with the potential of contributing to visitors’ engaged immersion in destinations. Few studies have reflected on visitors’ perceptions of participation in food tour experiences, and research on co-creation in food tours is even more scarce. This study analyses co-creative tourism experience dimensions, previously identified in the literature, through a passive netnography, involving 658 online tourist reviews on TripAdvisor of a food tour experience in Lisbon, to understand how value was co-created by comparing the perceptions of visitors and the service provider. Interview-based data were subject to content analysis. Results showed that “aesthetics/sense,” “feel,” “thinking/education,” “relate,” and “personalization” were the most reported dimensions in tourists’ discourse, which was confirmed by the service provider. The present study provides insights to destination management organizations, marketers and entrepreneurs in creating opportunities for and designing appealing co-creative food experiences.

The literature increasingly recognises the value of food and wine tourism for destinations’ competitiveness. Given the scarcity of conceptual and empirical studies on co-creation within this field of special interest tourism, this paper aims to enhance the understanding of how visitors and supply agents co-create value in food and wine experiences, by analysing such experiences in the Portuguese wine region Dão. For this purpose, a qualitative study was undertaken, analysing visitors’ and tourism agents’ perceptions regarding five food and wine experiences: food and wine pairing, wine tasting with food pairing, harvesting, a culinary workshop and a wine workshop. The discourse obtained via in-depth semi-structured interviews from sixteen visitors and three supply agents was content analysed, supported by QSR NVivo 12. The results show that dimensions of the conceptually defined co-creation experience were, indeed, perceived in the visitors’ discourse, namely interaction (the most prominent in wine tasting and harvesting), active participation, engagement and personalization (the latter least reported). Sensorial engagement emerged from the discourse as an additional dimension that deserved attention. The agents’ perspective confirmed the importance of these dimensions in experience design. This paper identifies theoretical and managerial contributions for destination management organisations, wine tourism agents and marketers, as well as relevant paths for future research in this field.