Grand Rapids was first named “Beer City USA” in 2012 when Examiner.com conducted a poll and its readers voted Grand Rapids #1 along with Asheville, North Carolina. In 2013, the city won the award outright. Then the poll was retired.
“So, when they retired the poll, we decided, ‘Okay, well we are Beer City USA’ and nobody has won it after us. So, we’ve still been using it. We’ve been rallying around that ever since.”
The title retained with USA Today’s 10Best Readers Choice voters naming Grand Rapids Beer City for a third year in a row.
Kate Lieto is Associate Vice President of Marketing with Experience Grand Rapids. She also sits on the Beer City Brewers Guild Board of Directors. She says a large portion of visitors to their taprooms are tourists.
“Either specifically to experience the beer scene or they’re here for a wedding or a family reunion, something else, a conference, a business meeting and they want to check out the breweries.”
Experience Grand Rapids launched its Beer City Brewsaders Passport app in 2016 for marketing the craft brew scene and gleaning data.
“And we can track statistics and we know that only about 25% of the people completing that passport are locals. So, the rest are out of town tourists here doing the beer scene.”
Since its inception, more than 22,000 are registered Brewsaders.