RICHMOND, Va. -- More than 16 million people visit the Richmond Region each year, according to Richmond Region Tourism. The group says there's one thing that seems to be luring in more and more out-of-towners.
"People come here just for the beer," said Katherine O'Donnell, Richmond Region Tourism's Executive Director.
O'Donnell says the 30+ breweries found in the Richmond area have helped take back what was lost during the
pandemic.
"We actually bounced back really fast, faster than a lot of parts of the state and other places in the country. It took about 18 months for us to recover, and hotel occupancy and collections have been up ever since, and we're setting record levels," O'Donnell said.
Richmond was recently rated one of the top 10 beer scenes in the country by USA Today.
Now, Richmond Region Tourism is tracking how many people may be traveling here for beer through its new online Beer Trail Passport, which gives users points and prizes for each spot they visit.
"We can track people where they're coming from, and we know folks are here or are interested, from out of town, based on the stats," O'Donnell said.
Though the exact data on how many people come specifically for beer is still being collected, O'Donnell said the past two years have broken pre-pandemic records.
In 2022, about 17.5 million people visited the area, spending about $9.5 million per day.
In Fiscal Year 2023, hotels generated $35 million in lodging taxes, a 16% increase over the last year.
O'Donnell said visitor volume is still below pre-pandemic levels.
“The area that’s probably the slowest in terms of leisure travel is the more economy-cost conscious traveler, might be cutting back, because of inflation, but by and large, people are still traveling, they still have that pent up demand from when they had to stay home during Covid," O'Donnell said.
With investments in Richmond's Diamond District and City Center coming alongside Henrico's Green City and Chesterfield's River City Sportsplex plans, O'Donnell said she expects the trend found in the tap rooms to continue.
“We actually are above the national average in people who come to visit their friends and family here, so that tells us that the people who live here are proud of where they live and they’re inviting their family to come," O'Donnell said. "I think that for us is really gratifying to see, the people who live here love it here and they want to bring their friends and family to come and breweries are a great place to do that.”
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