Beer Tourists: Who Are They?

Craft beer as an industry has been growing rapidly across the United States over the past decade. This growth and interest has created an emerging niche market in tourism, beer tourism. The purpose of this study is to expand on the knowledge of who a beer tourist is based on demographics, psychographics, and motivational factors. Also, this paper explored if this miconiche could be further divided into more specific segments. Results from the study show that the main motivation for beer tourists to visit a brewery is related to experiencing/ tasting new beers and learning more about the beer, brewery, or industry. It was also found that visitor’s whose main travel purpose was to visit the brewery were statistically significantly different on 5 motivational items than those visitors who had an alternative main purpose to their visit.