Developing Social Capital in Craft Beer Tourism Markets

Abstract

The growth of craft beer and breweries in the United States provides new sustainability options for both rural and urban tourism growth. As is common with many food tourism opportunities, understanding the linkages between craft brewers and the tourism industry is vital when analyzing the economic potential craft beer offers to regional development. Food and drink tourism literature highlights the need to develop social capital through collaboration as a means to improve the dissemination of best practice with knowledge exchange being an important component. Moreover, a viable tourist distribution system that includes marketing, transportation, and tourism infrastructure requires practical partnerships between both tourism and brewery businesses as a means to successfully promote tourist participation within a newly developing craft beer market. Using an instrumental comparative case study approach, and grounded in Cote and Healy’s (The wellbeing of nations. The role of human and social capital, 2001) social capital building model, this chapter provides insight into the elements that constitute social capital and challenges inherent in establishing new drink trail opportunities for tourism in Loudoun County, Virginia.