Category Archives: Tourism

Understanding Beer Tourists

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.

Focus marketing efforts on potential beer tourists living with a 150 mile radius of your community
Source: Statsamerica.com
Market your community to beer tourists as a weekend getaway
Source: Los Angeles Times, January 9, 2020
If your community has a brewery district, market it
Source: The Californian, November 9, 2018
Market complementary activities such as wineries

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.

Italy 3.0

I just returned from a few days in L’Aquila, Italy. It was my third visit to this earthquake-ravaged Italian town in the last ten months. I’d been there in September 2017 and, more recently, in May 2018. On both my previous visits I’d given talks about beer to students in the Regional Science and Urban Studies Program at the Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI). On this occasion, I was in L’Aquila as co-organizer of a two-day workshop on “The Geography of Craft Beer and Consumption: Local Entrepreneurialism and Tourism Development”. My co-organizers were Alessandra Faggian, Professor of Applied Economics, Director of Social Sciences, and Vice Provost for Research at the Gran Sasso Science Institute, and Giulia Pezzi, Post Doctoral Research Fellow at GSSI. The workshop was designed to provide an opportunity for doctoral students and early career Professors to present their research. Alessandra, Giulia, and myself had also lined up two excellent keynote speakers – Martin Stack of Rockhurst University in the United States and Christian Garavaglia of The University of Milano-Bicocca. Both gave fascinating keynote lectures – Martin on the history of craft beer in the United States and how to assess its impact, while Christian gave an overview of the growth of craft beer at the international level.

Beautiful L’Aquila

Christian Garavaglia talking about historical trends in the global brewing industry

Martin Stack talking about the history of craft beer in the United States

Following Martin and Christian’s lectures, Giulia Pezzi and myself presented plenary lectures on craft beer and tourism. I focused my lecture on trying to understand the motivations of the craft beer tourist and their desire to drink unique beer in unique spaces. Giulia’s lectures examined the contribution that craft beer can make to tourism in rural and remote regions.

The opening day of the workshop concluded with a presentation by Luca Marcotullio, owner of L’Aquila’s only craft brewery, Anbra. I had visited Anbra’s taproom on my last visit to L’Aquila and had been impressed with both the ambience and the beer. The brewery is a post-earthquake phenomenon. Following the earthquake, Luca decided to open the brewery, realizing that a taproom in the center of the city would provide a space where people could come, relax, and socialize with each other. In many respects, the taproom was Luca’s contribution to the rebuilding of post-earthquake L’Aquila. Following, Luca’s talk, he took questions from those us in the audience, which proved to be particularly fascinating.

The entrance to Anbra’s taproom

That evening, Luca retold Anbra’s story to interested citizens of L’Aquila, in one of GSSI’s auditoriums. Following that talk everyone retired to the beautiful outdoor terrace of the GSSI, where Luca and one of his staff members, served a selection of four Anbra beers. Following that event, myself and a couple of other conference attendees decided to head into the center of L’Aquila and enjoy a few beers at the Anbra taproom. A few beers into our visit, Luca appeared. He recognized us from earlier in the evening, and provided us each with a complimentary beer. The same hospitality was offered to us the following evening when we visited Anbra.

 

Luca Marcotullio (left) serving up some Anbra beer on the outdoor terrace of GSSI

The second day of the workshop, there were presentations from eleven young researchers. The came from five countries – Argentina, Bulgaria, Canada, Italy, and the United States. The topics were varied and included:

  • The role of tourism in creating Greater Central Florida’s Craft beer scene
  • The emerging relationship between the craft beer and recreational cannabis industries
  • Product innovation hotspots in craft brewing as indicated by trademarks
  • Local entrepreneurs and the transformation of the beer industry towards sustainability
  • Craft breweries at the US/Canadian cross border region
  • Neolocalism and Quebec craft breweries
  • Fostering craft brewing tourism in the Piedmont region of Italy
  • Tourism, authenticity, and craft beer in West Virginia
  • The growing craft beer culture in Plovdiv, Bulgaria
  • Craft beer and consumer preferences in Mar del Plata, Argentina
  • Beer labels and religious symbols in Quebec

Andrea Belmartino talks about craft beer in Mar del Plata, Argentina

As someone who would be considered a “senior” scholar, it was wonderful to hear these presentations by younger scholars. Craft beer research, like craft beer itself, is experiencing something of a boom. And those conducting the research come from a variety of academic backgrounds – Geography, Economics, Anthropology, Sociology, etc. This diversity of perspectives adds to the richness of the research and leads to insights that might not otherwise be possible. It was a great few days in L’Aquila. The next conference dedicated exclusively to beer will be the biennial Beeronomics Conference which will be held in Pilsen in the Czech Republic in June 2019. I am already looking forward to that.

Beer Tourism

Last week I was in Manchester, VT. I had been invited there by Paul Connor, who is Director of Planning and Zoning for the City of South Burlington. Paul had organized a panel discussion at the Fall Conference of the Northern New England Chapter of the American Planning Association. The panel was titled “Brewing Up A Continue reading Beer Tourism

The Columbus Ale Trail

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Elevator Brewery & Draught Haus – one of the breweries on the Columbus Ale Trail

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The Columbus Ale Trail Passport

I was in Columbus, OH a few weeks ago. I was there for a couple of conferences – CEOs for Cities and Data Driven ’16. While my days were spent listening to presentations my evenings were free. My colleague Margie, who arrived in Columbus before me, picked up a small booklet titled
Columbus Ale Trail. It is a pocket-sized, passport-type, booklet that contains information on the twenty-eight breweries that comprise the Columbus Ale Trail. The basic idea is that as you visit an establishment on the trail you get a stamp verifying your visit. Visit four establishments and you receive a complimentary ale trail beer glass (shaker style); visit all twenty-eight and you get a complimentary pack of ale trail playing cards. While most of the breweries on the trail are located in the city of Columbus there are a few that are to be found in outlying communities such as Westerville Continue reading The Columbus Ale Trail