CRAFT BEER TOURISM

Abstract

Beer tourism is one of the types of gastronomic tourism related to familiarizing with history, production technology and the culture of beer consumption, its tasting directly from producers.

Interest in brewing culture in Ukraine is gradually gaining momentum – more beer bars and pubs are opened, local private breweries are appearing, in some sense an audience is formed.

The beer craft revolution began in the ХХ century. In 1980, there were only eight craft breweries in the United States. In 1994, there were already 537 of them. In 2010 there were more than 1600. Today, it’s more than five thousand. They work throughout the United States, and most Americans live on average no more than ten kilometers from the brewery.

The most attractive countries of beer tourism in the world are Belgium, Germany, the Czech Republic, as well as the USA. Given the growth and potential of the beer tourism industry, travel providers increasingly include craft beer and brewing experience in their products, even in destinations that traditionally serve mostly wine lovers.

Since brewing is popular all over the world, there is a significant international experience of beer tourism  development, which can be applied in Ukraine with some adaptation. After all, the most important prerequisites for the development of beer tourism in Ukraine are the long tradition of beer production. 

The overwhelming majority of producers in Ukraine are concentrated on the production of beer from natural ingredients, small factories are brewing live beer, so there is every chance of attracting segment of craft beer tourists to Ukraine. Thus, beer tourism is a promising tourist product that Ukraine can offer to the world tourist market.