The importance of intrinsic and extrinsic local olive oil attributes for tourists: evidence from a Mediterranean destination

This paper focuses on tourists' purchasing behaviour of local olive oil in a tourist destination, providing evidence of consumer segments, based on the importance of olive oil attributes for purchasing decision. The research was conducted in Croatia, a famous tourists' destination in the Mediterranean, recognised for its traditional food products, including olive oil. A survey conducted on 471 tourists shows that the main predictors of tourist's purchase of olive oil are the number of previous visits to destination and the tourist's country of origin. The relative importance of extrinsic and intrinsic olive oil attributes proved to differ between tourists. The present research identifies four market segments. The results of this study may help olive oil producers develop and implement more successful marketing strategies directed towards tourists in the destination.