Beercations

Abstract

The U.S. craft beer industry has experienced phenomenal growth over the past several decades and, as of 2016, there were over 6,300 craft breweries nationwide. The sector’s rapid growth has generated interest—both by academics and in the popular press—in the potential of craft breweries as an economic development engine and a way to support local tourism. This chapter utilizes measures of regional specialization (i.e. location quotients) and concentration (i.e. locational Gini) to explore the spatial distribution of the U.S. craft brewery and tourism industries, with a particular interest in identifying regions with strengths in both sectors. An initial analysis focusing on states shows that craft breweries became more geographically dispersed across regions between 2011 and 2016. A county-level analysis of craft breweries shows high levels of specialization in the Western U.S.—between the Pacific Coast and Rocky Mountains—as well as the northeast and around the Great Lakes. An analysis of craft breweries and tourism businesses identified 60 counties that are likely to have strengths in beer tourism. Some of the top places include Portland, Oregon; Asheville, North Carolina; Charleston, South Carolina; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Nashville, Tennessee. This chapter provides an initial spatial analysis of places ripe for “beercations,” and an important first step in understanding the relationship between brewery location and tourism.