How can start-up distillers carve a niche for themselves and become household names? Start by harnessing the immense potential of tourism!
We’ll cut right to the point – the smartest thing you can do to make your distillery more profitable, increase advocacy, demonstrate transparency, increase sales volumes and be more immune to market fluctuations is to open up your doors.
Visitor centres might not be a panacea, but successfully tapping into tourism is one of the single best ways to improve everything all your prospects in one go.
DISCUS numbers (whose members represent over 50% percent of all distilled spirits brands sold in the United States) suggest staggering amounts are generated through distillery tours and merchandise. Moreover, that distillery tourism is directly responsible for thousands of jobs across the country.
Meanwhile, Scotland Whisky distilleries host millions of guests a year. Brand experience centres generate multi-million-pound incomes, with the biggest names hosting hundreds of thousands of visitors in London, Edinburgh, Dublin and Amsterdam.
Even on a small scale and limited budget (and space), tapping into tourism can be a game changer.
It’s understandable too. With saturation has come evolution and to be a craft maker today is far more involved and integrated into the wider hospitality than ever before. Making good products and hoping they are discovered is no longer enough. We are in the hospitality industry and how we make people feel that matters most of all.
Where better to do that, than at your own home?
The visitor centre: Your distillery’s heartbeat
Imagine this: a curious traveller strolls into your distillery, eager to immerse themselves in the world of spirits. Yours in particular.
They are welcomed into an inviting visitor centre, beautifully capturing the essence of your brand and your spirit-making journey. It’s not just a room; it’s an experience.
A visitor centre serves as the face of your brand, creating that all-important meaningful connection. It is here that visitors gain a sneak peek into the magic you’re distilling, enticing them to delve deeper.
They walk away not only more informed and more enamoured, but willing to advocate on your behalf. Happy visitors are known to become brand ambassadors, singing praises and spreading the word.
All the while, their visit allows you to grow a database of consumers, keeping them in the loop about new releases, events, and more, ensuring they remain connected and engaged long after that visit has finished.
Tourism brings increased revenue
That connection is valuable, not just because you have a drinker who can literally visualise your brand and your distillery, nor because they told their friends about it and posted it all over social, nor because you have the chance to stay in touch and keep topping up their shelf…
No need to be crass about it, but it’s also the best deal you’ve ever made. You’ve been paid to talk about your brand and to show someone what you do and why you do it.
In every other Route to Market, you’ll have to fight for that privilege, often even paying for the chance to educate drinkers about you. Here – they literally did all the work of coming to visit you, and even paid you for the pleasure. Re-invest 100% of the cost of a tour into the experience and it’s still the cheapest marketing channel you’ll ever have.
And that’s before the gift shop, and the DTC margin you are making. For those in the UK – that’s a world apart than wholesale margins. Same goes for the US (where permitted), Australia, and South Africa.
No wonder then, that it can account for a quarter of a distillery’s profitability when up and running in meaningful numbers.
Tourism provides direct feedback
There’s another secret ingredient that distilleries harness when they welcome visitors: the invaluable feedback loop.
With a captive audience that’s immersed in the experience, a distillery becomes the perfect place to test ideas, whether they’re limited edition releases, exclusive bottle designs, or innovative NPD’s in trial phase.
When you introduce a new creation to your audience, you’re met with immediate reactions, unfiltered opinions, and suggestions. Here, it’s happening in a space where they can get the full context of why, and have a moment to think about it – a rare occurrence.
This kind of direct feedback is gold dust for any brand. It helps distillers refine their products, tailor them to their audience’s preferences, and even take bold leaps based on what the reception is like. Tourism provides the ultimate focus group and a symbiotic relationship that has led to many releases over the years.
The essence of a great distillery experience:
Here are a few ways to ensure your guest experience is best in class.
Engaging Storytelling: Your distillery has a unique story. From its inception, struggles, achievements, to the people behind it. Sharing this narrative makes visitors feel connected and invested. Find ways to visualise it above and beyond literally showing them around. Invest in infrastructure that boosts the USP’s of your brand and the guest experience.
Interactive Elements: Whether it’s a DIY blending station, aroma sniffing corners, or hands-on grain sampling, interactive elements make the tour fun and memorable. Make it hyper sensory – the heady aroma of fermenting mash, the sight of shimmering liquids in copper stills, and the clink of bottles being sealed – all of it paints a story.
Expert Guides: Knowledgeable, passionate guides can transform a simple walk around the distillery into an enlightening experience. Invest in training your guides to be both informative and engaging.
Tasting Sessions: A distillery tour without tasting is like a book without an ending. Curate tasting sessions that allow visitors to savour your spirits, and more importantly, understand their unique profiles. Some of that could happen along the way if you have room and are making the likes of Whisky or Brandy. Alternatively, deconstruct a gin into botanical distillates to help people pick out the core ingredients’ flavour profiles.
Personal Touch: Whether it’s a handwritten note, a photo opportunity, or a small parting gift, adding a personal touch ensures your visitors leave with a smile, and more often than not, a desire to return. Think about how you are going to try and continue your conversation with them and further the relationship in the months ahead, when they are miles away.
Consider redirecting some of the profits into enhancing the experience
It’s one thing to taste a spirit and another to take a piece of that experience home. A well-stocked shop at the end of a tour ensures that visitors can purchase their favourites right then and there. As we’ve said above, selling direct to consumers isn’t just convenient; it’s profitable. Without middlemen, the margins improve significantly, boosting overall profitability.
Reinvest that into subsiding quality and memorable experience. We’ll repeat it again, even if you dump it all back in and only break-even – it’ll be the cheapest brand equity building, and advocacy generation you’ll ever be able to do. Consider these ideas:
Culinary pairings and on-site dining:
Offer a gastronomic delight alongside your distilled creations. Establishing an on-site restaurant or bistro that offers food pairings with your spirits can greatly enhance the visitor experience.
Not only does it provide a comprehensive tasting experience, but it also allows guests to linger longer, exploring more of what you have to offer. If you are a rural distillery, people will have to drive to visit, and a café or restaurant allows you to cater to the designated driver more proactively, as well as deal with the mixed arrival times etc.
If you can’t deliver it yourself, consider collaborating with local chefs and producers can also tie your distillery into the local culinary scene, making it a gourmet destination.
Even if it’s not a full blown meal offering – integrating local ingredients and culinary delights into your tasting sessions, pairings, and events enhances authenticity and offers a holistic experience.
Entertainment programs and workshops:
Engage visitors with more than just a tour. Designing workshops and courses on the art of distillation, cocktail making, or spirit and food pairings can turn your distillery into an educational hub.
Alternatively, lean into fun lifestyle elements like hosting live music, or being the venue for art exhibitions. Turning your distillery into a destination and part of the local cultural scene is key to keeping your relevance with those who live nearby.
If you are an urban venue, engage in joint events with nearby businesses. Whether it’s a festival or market day, co-hosting events with local businesses can enhance footfall and provide visitors with an enriched experience. Successful ideas can be as simple as food truck friday’s, a street market on the first weekend of the month and more. Make you area the favourite neighbourhood for locals and tourists alike to gather.
All of this might cost a little to build, but the increased traffic and awareness, social media content and reputation gained far outweighs the subsidising that’s needed to start it off.
Sustainability initiatives:
Showcase and invest in green practices. Use the funds generated by your visitor offering to develop your sustainability practices, such as waste reduction, use of local ingredients, and energy-efficient production methods.
Many green initiatives take investment and funds to deliver – which can be hard when cashflow is tight and margins per bottle is limited.
Here, income is accounted for separately and generated locally – so why not use it to improve things locally too? Once up and running, you could offer tours that highlight these practices and involve the visitors in small-scale sustainable activities (like planting herbs used in your spirits).
You don’t need an excuse to do the right thing, but this really does give you a good reason…
Facility upgrades for accessibility and comfort:
Prioritise the comfort and accessibility of your distillery for all guests. Ensure that your facilities are accessible to people with disabilities and invest in amenities that enhance comfort, such as cosy seating areas, clean restrooms etc. A comfortable guest is more likely to linger, engage, and speak highly of the experience. Dwell time should be a term you take very seriously!
Subsidised lodging / tourism partnerships:
Collaborate with nearby hotels, inns, and B&Bs to create exclusive packages for tourists. Imagine a weekend getaway package that includes a distillery tour, tasting session, and a night at a local lodging.
Such collaborations can boost local tourism and provide a comprehensive experience to visitors. Other traditional marketing partnerships can also be valuable too, like ensuring guests of certain hotels always have room on tours, setting up kickbacks for guest referrals etc.
Don’t forget transportation solutions in all of this. Partnering with local transportation businesses, like shuttle services or bicycle rental shops, ensures that your visitors can travel safely, especially after a tasting session.
Consider how tourism will affect operations
Running tours isn’t all opportunity and frivolity. It has a multifaceted impact on operations, some of which can be negative if unplanned. Ensuring that a seamless experience for visitors doesn’t become a chaotic disruption every day involves planning. Think of the following…
Health and Safety
Navigating through a working distillery can be an enchanting experience for guests, but it also brings them into proximity with potential hazards, such as moving machinery, hot equipment, trip hazards.
Implementing rigorous health and safety protocols, clear demarcations of no-access zones, and ensuring that all tour pathways are safe and secure becomes paramount.
Providing protective gear, if necessary, and clear safety instructions at the outset of every tour ensures that the enchanting experience is also an exceptionally safe one.
Logistical synchronisation
Coordinating tours amidst active production schedules can be a logistical puzzle.
Determining optimal times for tours that least disrupt operations, or perhaps designing production schedules with built-in windows for tours, helps strike a balance.
It’s essential to coordinate closely with both production and tour staff to ensure that each entity operates smoothly without hindering the other.
Noise management
Distilleries are vibrant spaces where the hum of machinery melds with the bubbling of fermenting concoctions. However, this operational noise, while being a part of the authentic experience, can disrupt the communication of your story.
Strategically planning quieter routes through the distillery or quieter dwell zones to present what’s going on can ensure that your narrative isn’t drowned out by the ambient noise. Vis versa, moving tours on so that they don’t become a constant factor for operational teams to have to work around.
Operational privacy and proprietary processes
While transparency is cherished, there are likely aspects of your production that you’d like to keep proprietary. Designing tour routes and experiences that share the magic without divulging all your secrets is wise. Curate what you reveal, ensuring it’s engaging yet doesn’t compromise your unique distillation practices and business strategies.
Impact on staff:
It’s pivotal to consider the impact of tours on your production staff. Will they need to modify their routines or endure disruptions? Are they fair game for questions or off limits? Are they expected to be out of the way or allowed to genuinely carry on, irrespective of what’s about to happen and how that looks, sounds, smells and spills?
What do facilities look like from breakout eating areas, changing / restrooms all the way to car parking and more? Inviting dozens of extra people at any given point can easily become a nuisance for those who have a pragmatic, historically non-front of house job to do. It can easily become an eyesore too.
Post-visit engagement:
The end of the tour is not the end of the engagement. Ensuring your operational and customer service staff are prepared to manage follow-up inquiries, purchases, and potentially, future visits is crucial.
An integrated CRM system can help manage guest data, ensuring that post-visit engagement is as smooth and personalised as the tour itself. Consider how that affects the broader brand and marketing team, and how they are dovetailed into the operation where necessary.
Opening the doors and embracing tourism can be a lifeline for rural business, and a boost to those in city centres. It can also provide an endless avenue of media and awareness driving opportunities. After all, the tourism industry is far bigger than Craft Distilling. Use your space wisely, build advocacy and reap the rewards.
The key is to view tours not as a disjointed add-on but an integral part of the distillery’s rhythm, where each aspect, from safety to logistics, is orchestrated in harmony.
