Antecedents and Outcomes of Customer Experience: The Case of Wine Festivals

This study investigates visitors' cognitive and behavioural processes in the context of a wine festival, adopting the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) theoretical framework to examine how internal and external stimuli can influence customer experience and response. Based on 304 valid responses collected through a questionnaire, a structural equation model was developed to analyse the relationships among constructs. The results confirm the central role of customer experience as a mediating factor between antecedents (motivations and involvement) and behavioural response (loyalty). Findings reveal that festival experiences are shaped not only by event-related attributes but also by individual factors such as prior interest and engagement. These results highlight the importance of viewing customer experience as a continuous, context-dependent process. From a managerial perspective, enhancing destination attractiveness requires attention not only to the quality of the event itself but also to the broader experiential dimensions that contribute to visitors' perceptions and future intentions.