June 23, 2021

Pennsylvania is second in the nation when it comes to the amount of craft beer produced, and the number of breweries in Pennsylvania has increased steadily since 2010. Most of these engage in some form of beer tourism, and doing so can enhance local and regional tourism by offering brewery events on site, attending craft beverage/ale/local festivals, participating in craft beverage trails, and being part of brewery bus tours. These activities are often developed in collaboration with destination marketing organizations to attract more tourists to an area.

With funding from the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, a team of Penn State Extension researchers led by Claudia Schmidt conducted a study to gain a better understanding of these collaborations. They selected six beer trails across the commonwealth and interviewed their managers/administrators about how their trails began, gamification components (passports and memberships), the challenges they encountered and what recommendations they might have for others who would like to establish a trail in their county.

In the report, published by the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development, the researchers:

• review the current regulatory environment for beer tourism in Pennsylvania
• provide a profile of beer tourism visitors/craft beer drinkers
• share findings from their interviews with beer trail managers
• provide an overview of how beer trails can measure success and survey craft beverage establishment customers.

The free report (1.2MB PDF) is available here.