•  
  •  
 

Domain

Social Sciences

Abstract

Beer tourism in Kentucky is prevalent to the state’s economy and culture. This study focuses on community attachment as a means to predict locavore tendencies in the community regarding beer tourism in Kentucky. Using a Likert-scale survey, Bradley, Berend, & Maples analyzed the feeling of community attachment, locavore tendencies, and any existing barriers to locavore behavior. This paper uses their results to interpret Kentucky craft beer tourism and its importance to the community in which it exists. The data included the results from 761 resident responses, where there total complete surveys tallied 1071 responses, including those from non-residents; only responses from residents were used in this study. Visitors were 59.2% male and 37.3% female, 88.8% white, an average of 35.71 years old, earning a median income of $81.658.67. Results showed 73.3% of respondents have a Bachelor’s Degree or higher. With the Likert-scale (1=strongly agree; 5=strongly disagree), community attachment scored an average of 2.1847, showing visitors felt an attachment to their community, including the brewery they were visiting; locavore motivation scored a 1.9853, demonstrating strong motivation to consume locally produced and sold goods and services; and the locavore barriers scored a 3.1464 on the scale, indicating neutral, unsure, or indifferent reactions to any existing barriers in regard to their locavore behavior and choices. Based on these findings, community attachment can be used to predict locavore tendencies, and barriers for the population studied did not hold direct influence over their decisions. Results did show that the respondents agreed they can get a better price through a larger/national brand compared to local products, but does not seem to influence the decisions of the visitors regarding craft beer. Implications of this study are that beer tourism is associated with local consumers and their community attachment in Kentucky, and can help predict future behaviors.

Mentor Name

Michael Bradley

Mentor Email

michael.bradley@eku.edu

Download

Share

COinS