Beer Tourism on the rise

RUNAWAY... to Manchester and be part of the growing Craft Beer scene

HAVING been on the verge of a collapse a few years ago, Britain’s well-loved pubs are now becoming a key attraction for tourists.

Of the 34.6million tourists to visit last year from abroad, around 13million visited a pub to experience what is commonly seen as a British stereotype, but not just to have a photo in the likes of The Rovers Return or The Queen Vic.

Beer Tourism has always kindled an interest among beer enthusiasts, whether that be trying a pint from a particular brewer from another region like Thwaites in Lancashire, or spending a weekend in Germany.

But the recent growth in craft beer is something that has really captivated people who are keen to try some of the 5,000 brands of beer that now exist in the UK.

“Beer tourism is becoming a really big thing now, with people coming to the UK where traditionally everyone buggered off to Belgium for two weeks to go and drink Belgian beer,” says Mark Welsby, co-founder of Runaway Brewery in Manchester, “but people are now coming to the UK because the beer scene is exciting… That’s pretty cool!”

Showcasing Runaway’s facilities and beer at Shebeen Festival, Mark mused: “Maybe meet the brewer and all that kind of stuff instead of going to a gig?

“I mean it’s happening already isn’t it?” he continued. “Some of the beer festivals we’ve seen coming up, IndyMan Beer Conference; it’s on every October, it’s probably the most influential craft beer festival in the UK now, and people literally come from all over Europe to come to that festival.”

Last year over 3,000 people visited the festival at Victoria Baths in Manchester over the four days, with 47 different breweries ranging from all over the UK, as well as accommodating European breweries from Italy, Denmark, Spain and The Netherlands, plus some brewers from the biggest consumer and producer of craft beer in the world, the USA.

Festival organiser Jonny Heyes explains “The beer world is a dynamic industry, more women and young people are drinking beer and it’s losing it’s stuffy, old man image, yet something was lacking in Britain’s beer festivals so we thought we’d change that."

BlackJack Brewery was one of the venues for this year's festival

There was also music and art on show to exhibit the elements
Keystone will bring to the Green Quarter

15 new breweries have opened across Greater Manchester in the last 18 months, and the emergence of these festivals is starting to open up the scene which until now has been very London based, with London Craft Beer Festival (August) and London Beer Week (February) being the only major festivals showcasing the growing Craft Beer scene.

“I hope Manchester leads the way, certainly,” says Mark, who exhibits at both IndyMan and Shebeen, as well as supplying many local pubs across Manchester.

“It’s a modern progressive city, it always has been, so it makes sense in lots of ways for it to be at the forefront of that.”

A unique network of pubs is one of the things the British Beer and Pub Association says makes the experience attractive, and that the way they are evolving to include traditional food and accommodation will only add to that and ‘make for a great opportunity for this niche in our tourism market to grow further’.

A spokesperson added: “We have worked hard to get the tourism authorities to put beer and pubs at the heart of our tourism offering, and they have responded positively.

“For beer lovers, we have a great variety of styles and many that offer something quintessentially British, with our bitters, golden ales, porters, IPAs, stouts and milds.”