Craft brewery tourism best-practices: A research agenda

We suggest three main areas for future research: an analysis of craft brewery tourism's historical development; an analysis of the elements that constitute the 'core business' and 'core products' of craft brewery tourism operations, and the strategic role that tourism practices can play in the continued development of the sector. In terms of its historical development, we suggest that more needs to be known about the growth trajectories of the 'craft brewery tourism' sector (i.e. the societal/cultural, legal and other factors associated with success and failure) as they have played out in the various national and regional contexts. Generating an understanding of the sector's growth trajectory, control­ ling for national and cultural differences, will provide evidence of tactics and strategies that have proven successful across all national contexts, as well as those that are idiosyncratic to particular regions. This knowledge will be useful in comparing the craft brewery tourism sector's experience with other niche-tourism sectors (e.g. wine, whiskey and tea etc.) and will provide a basis for determining what success factors may be transferred between them.