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Let's present our breweries!

Volt Hauts-de-France : #lapolitiquepourlavenir

Support the brewery scene to make it one of the pillars of tourism in the Hauts-de-France region

(updated 11.07.2021)

Why is this important ?

"Beer tourism" has gained momentum in several regions in Europe with their breweries often accomodating visitors for the night who are walking or cycling from brewery to brewery. Although regional indices of breweries exist in the Hauts-de-France and abroad, the latter have begun to exploit the tourist potential of craft and historic breweries as well as the hop and malt industries by adapting activities around beer tasting. Surveys show a strong interest to visit breweries. The sale of craft beer, organised trips, restaurants, walking and cycling tours have been identified as the predominant activities in beer tourism with the greatest potential. The region should therefore support the municipalities and their breweries with a coherent communication strategy.

What do we propose ?

  • Promote and encourage the cultivation of hops and bio-hops in the region in order to supply regional breweries with locally grown ingredients;
  • Combine initiatives with cycling tourism in order to provide communities with a second potential source of tourism income and return on investment;
  • Form partnerships with European and American beer regions and associations in order to put the Hauts-de-France region on the radar of consumers abroad;

Can you estimate the cost of this ?

Put our region on the atlas of beer destinations

Create an initiative and campaign to market the beer heritage and character of the region. Similar to the communication strategy for bike tourism, we would plan with a budget of 2 million euros per year.

Promote and encourage the cultivation of hops and bio-hops

To include hop cultivation in agricultural training programmes we foresee a budget of 2 million euro/year. To support interested farmers to start hop cultivation, support for start-up investment in hop cultivation through bank guarantees and assistance in obtaining national and European subsidies, as well as the possibility for breweries to support farmers, we foresee a budget of 12 million euros per year (10 million euros for guarantees).

Integrate efforts with bike tourism initiatives

Ensure breweries are integrated in the development of bike tourism as heritage sites, points of interest and possible places of accommodation for starting to explore the region. No additional cost is planned for this measure.

Support partnering with foreign brewery associations

We foresee helping local associations to establish links with foreign counterparts and building up long-term relationships as well as joint activities. Interest groups abroad can spearhead foreign communication, build our reputation and attract new visitors to the region. We are planning with an initial budget of 250.000€ / year to support the development of an international network to communicate on the Hauts-de-France brewery culture.

How can I help ?

Help improve our proposals

Help financing our movement

Sources

(Beer pack by sahua on the Noun Project, Photo by Fábio Alves on Unsplash)