The emergence of craft beer in recent years has contributed to increased participation in beer tourism. However, there is a dearth of literature on brewery visitors. A key first step in researching beer tourism is to obtain an initial understanding of who is visiting breweries and why. This may provide information to better market target audiences. This information provides valuable insight for Kentucky brewery management and operations. Although this research concentrates on one state, it may enhance experiences at breweries in other states, increasing initial and repeat visitation. This study hopes to bring forth more information similar to the visitor profile made by Plummer, Telfer, Hashimoto, and Summers (2005) and to help brewery managers to continue providing experiences that will gain repeat customers. Kentucky brewery patron’s motivations, likeliness to shop local, intent to visit breweries in the future, and sociodemographic variables that may provide insight related to these constructs were examined in this study.
Four breweries were utilized as research sites with 345 of 353 brewery visitors, a response ratio of 97%, agreeing to participate. The researchers found that visiting a brewery was not the main reason a majority of visitors were traveling, preference for craft beer was higher than for national beer brands, respondents were predominantly white, and almost half of respondents had a bachelor’s degree. As the craft brewery industry considers the future, visitor profiles and motivations will help guide brewery management to target marketing efforts in ways that position the industry for growth and community impact
