During the month of February I gave two presentations on the topic of beer tourism. The first was at the Beer Marketing and Tourism Conference in St. Petersburg, FL, while the second was at the Nebraska Agritourism and Adventure Travel Workshop in Nebraska City, NE. Beer tourism is a topic I wrote about in a previous blog entry in 2017. In June, I will be traveling to Fort Myers, FL to make a presentation on the same topic to interested stakeholders in that community. There is no question that interest in beer tourism is growing. Tourism officials and others in a myriad of places are recognizing that beer tourism represents an opportunity to bring new dollars into their communities. There have been a small number of studies that estimate the economic impact of beer tourism. A 2019 study of the nearly 94,000 beer tourists who visited Kent County, MI (home of Grand Rapids) estimated their economic impact to be $38.5 million. The 2017 Oregon Brewer Festival, which was held in Portland, OR had an economic impact of $23.9 million. Finally, the 2018 release of Pliny the Younger by Russian River Brewery had an economic impact of $3.36 million on Sonoma County, CA.

Thanks to these studies, and a number of others undertaken by academics, we actually know quite a bit about beer tourists – their demographic profile, travel preferences, and travel patterns. We know, for example, that somewhere between 60 and 66% of beer tourists are male, 75-84% are under the age of fifty, 60-80% have at least a Bachelor’s degree, and 40-45% live in households whose annual income exceeds $80,000. In short beer tourists tend to be male, young, well-educated, and are economically well-off.

We also know that beer tourists do not stray far from home. Seventy-five percent of the beer tourists who visit Kent County, MI live in the state of Michigan, while 83% of those traveling to Santa Rosa, CA for the 2016 Pliny the Younger Release were from the state of California. Not only do most beer tourists travel short distances, they also visit a destination for a couple of days – 95% of the beer tourists who visit Kent County, MI do so for two nights or less. Indeed, the average length of stay in Kent County was 1.6 nights, while those who traveled to Santa Rosa, CA for the Pliny the Younger Release in 2019 stayed for an average of 1.8 nights. Perhaps not surprisingly, beer tourists travel in small groups of between two and four people (think a couple or two couples, traveling together).

Research by Jennifer Kraftchick and her colleagues at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro suggests that the primary reason why craft beer drinkers visit breweries in other towns and states is to taste craft beer in the breweries where it is brewed. Visiting a craft brewery in another community often provides the craft beer drinker the opportunity to taste beer that is unavailable in their home town. This is consistent with other research which suggests that craft beer drinkers like to travel from brewery to brewery tasting the beer and enjoying the unique ambience of each brewery.

The aforementioned characteristics of beer tourists are insightful for towns and cities looking to market their communities to beer tourists. For example, I advise communities to focus their marketing efforts to a 150 mile radius. Depending on the community the number of people living within a 150 mile radius can be quite large. For example, there are 18.7 million people within a 150 mile radius of the city I live in, Toledo, OH. I also suggest targeting short-stay tourists, promoting their community (and their breweries) as an ideal ‘weekend getaway’. If a community has a brewery district, I suggest marketing it – emphasizing the ease of moving from one brewery to another (e.g., on foot, by bicycle, or by Uber). Identifying, and making the potential beer tourist aware of complimentary activities is also a good idea. Beer tourists travel with spouses, partners, and friends – some of whom may not be beer drinkers. So providing information on, for example, wineries is smart marketing. Or perhaps your community has a variety of outdoor recreational opportunities such as hiking or kayaking – if that is the case, then think about ways to cross-market breweries with these activities.

Having attracted tourists to your community, it would be nice if they enjoyed themselves so much that they decide to return at a future date. Kent County, MI has been particularly successful at getting beer tourists to return for repeat visits. Sixty percent of beer tourists surveyed as part of the Kent County, MI study indicated that they had visited Kent County at least once during the previous twelve months. A return visit by a beer tourist indicates that the previous visit had been an enjoyable experience. So having your community’s breweries put their best foot forward and showing visitors a good time is critical. The same goes for other places (e.g. hotels, restaurants, museums, etc.) that beer tourists may visit. Remember, most beer tourists who visit your community live within a couple of hours drive – give them a reason to return, and they will.

Beer tourism is growing in popularity. More and more communities are embracing it. At the Beer Marketing and Tourism Conference that I attended last month in St. Petersburg, FL, there were representatives from a number of Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) in attendance. I chatted with a number of them over the three days of the conference. There is no question that the DMOs I chatted with appreciate the benefits that beer tourism can bring to their communities.

Further Reading:

Benton, Cristina and Sara Bowers. 2019. The Economic Impact of Beer Tourism in Kent County. East Lansing, MI: Anderson Economic Group, LLC.

Kraftchick, Jennifer Francioni, Erick T. Byrd, Bonnie Canziani, and Nancy J. Gladwell. 2014. Understanding beer tourist motivation. Tourism Management Perspectives, Volume 12, pp. 41-47.