Real Ale funding is no small beer
A national Real Ale Trail developed by a consortium of Scottish brewers to attract visitors on the strength of the country’s quality beers and ales has won financial support from VisitScotland’s Challenge Fund.
An award of £24,000 to the group of brewers, all members of the Small Independent Brewers Association, will support a brand new ‘Real Ale Trail’ which will attract visitors to sample Scotland’s diverse, hand-crafted and traditionally brewed ales and their breweries across the country, from Orkney to the Borders.
When the project is launched in August, it will give Scotland a Real Ale Trail to complement the existing Malt Whisky Trail in the north-east and the new ‘Whisky Coast’ trail which was created in Argyll and the islands with support from the Challenge Fund earlier this year. However, unlike the other trails, the Real Ale Trail will be Scotland-wide.
The additional funding will finance the development of a web site and promotional leaflet for Scotland’s Real Ale Trail, as well as advertising, a PR campaign, special promotions and a loyalty card system.
VisitScotland's head of Business Propositions, Yvonne Cook, said: “The Real Ale Trail is a superb example of the kind of partnership initiative we need to encourage to achieve our objective of a 50% growth in tourism revenues by 2015.
“By linking up with hotels, attractions and restaurants as well as breweries, the Real Ale Trail becomes something which benefits the wider industry; tourism really is everyone’s business,” he said.
Douglas Ross, Scottish chairman of Small Independent Brewers Association, said: “The quality and diversity of Scottish beer and ales is at an all time high, so it seemed that the time was right to develop a trail which would not only raise awareness of the product, but also provide a great way for visitors to see Scotland.
“It’s an exciting prospect for us to bring together over 50 Scottish breweries to work together for the first time to our mutual benefit and provide an opportunity for other tourism businesses to get involved too.”
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