Stakeholders and Craft Beer Tourism Development

Abstract

The growth of craft brewing in many countries is increasingly documented in the academic literature. However, research on this phenomenon, concerning the tourism side, is still limited. This exploratory study contributes to the developing body of craft brewing research, investigating the potential, opportunities, and challenges of craft beer tourism (CBT) from the perspective of a group of predominantly microbrewers operating in three nations. The significance of these entrepreneurs as stakeholders of this burgeoning industry justifies the use of stakeholder theory (ST) as the study's theoretical foundation; this adoption represents a further contribution of the study. The usefulness of ST is confirmed, with the findings particularly aligning with the descriptive, instrumental, and normative theses. Additionally, different perceptions of the potential of CBT based on country are identified; content analysis provides further support when different forms of CBT that could be developed are identified. The study also underlines various important practical and theoretical implications and suggests future research opportunities.