Travelocity Presents the Beer Tourism Index

Do you incorporate beer into your travel plans? Craft beer is readily available and the vast majority of the U.S. population lives within 30 minutes of a local brewery, making it easy to get your lips on locally- brewed suds no matter where you live. But there is something intrinsically exciting about venturing into the malt beverage unknown; visiting a brand new brewing operation for the first time and partaking in the fascinating creations unique to each and every brewery. This desire to explore new places one beer at a time has led to a rise in beer tourism and the folks at Travelocity, working with the Brewers Association, have created something quite useful for the beer globetrotters among us. It’s the Beer Tourism Index, a statistical measure that ranks the best places for beer travel.

Here at Great Beer Now, beer is an integral part of every vacation and I will often consult the brewery finder at craftbeer.com to scope out the area and find breweries near my chosen place of lodging. Visiting a brewery is much more than an excuse to sample new beer. What I love about brewery visits is that every one of them is special in its own way. It isn’t like visiting, say, a chain restaurant or hotel where the food, service, décor, etc., are standardized and consistent. Breweries are their own specimens and no two are alike.

Data on the popularity of beer tourism shows that I am not alone. Travelocity conducted a survey of 1,003 people and found that more than 75 percent of the individuals questioned said they like the idea of visiting local breweries and drinking local beer when they travel. The plethora of craft breweries has led to hundreds of beer festivals, beer weeks, beer trails and more, providing localities with a new source of travel revenue and a new breed of tourist.

So, how exactly did Travelocity and the Brewers Association create this nifty little index? Well, according to the source, they examined 300 United States Metropolitan Statistical Areas and scored each in these four areas:

• Breweries per 1 million residents: Working with the Brewers Association, each of the 300 Metropolitan areas was scored by the number of breweries and brewpubs per 1 million residents. The greater the concentration, the greater the score.
• Rideshare availability: Few beer travelers are content to visit just one brewery. This is why rideshare services are so valuable- they help beer tourists get from place to place with ease and keep them safe. Uber and Lyft are the best known among these taxi alternatives, so the index takes into account the availability of both, either, or neither of these services.
• Nonstop air destinations: Ease of travel is great for the beer tourist who wants to hit the ground running. Having a major airport with lots of non- stop incoming flights makes a difference, so the index factors in the number of destinations from which the Metropolitan area receives nonstop service.
• Lodging score: No one wants to run short on beer money. The existence of reasonably priced lodging helps keep more discretionary income in your pocket so the index scores each of the Metropolitan areas on the price of an average room night for the 2015 calendar year. Lower prices means higher index scores, and vice versa.

With the scores tabulated, a ranking is produced. To make the rankings fairer, Travelocity divided the rankings between large metropolitan areas and small metropolitan areas. This makes sense because, obviously, the large metro areas have a better chance to score highly in the air travel component of the index while smaller cities have a better chance to score higher on the number of breweries and brewpubs per 1 million population.  Can you guess which metropolitan areas rate the highest for beer travel? The results are not that surprising:

Top 6 Large Metro Areas:

1. Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR- WA
2. Denver-Aurora, CO
3. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
4. Portland-South Portland-Biddeford, ME
5. Colorado Springs, CO
6. Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA

Top 6 Small Metro Areas:

1. Bend, OR
2. Boulder, CO
3. Fort Collins-Loveland, CO
4. Corvallis, OR
5. Missoula, MT
6. Burlington-South Burlington, VT

For a full list of the cities and index scores, visit Travelocity Top Beer Destinations

Beer tourism is a large and growing business. With more than 4,000 breweries and brewpubs in the United States, local beer is on tap in most localities. Discovering the best places to travel for beer is what the Travelocity Beer Index is all about. It helps identify the places that not only have the most breweries and thus a strong beer culture, but also the places that are economical and convenient to visit with an emphasis on safety.

Beer will always be an important component of our travel itinerary at Great Beer Now. But even if craft beer isn’t the main focus of your travel plans, it’s still nice to know which cities are most inclined toward beer- friendliness and the Beer Tourism Index is a useful way to obtain this important information.  Check it out today and discover the wonders of craft beer, anywhere you go.