According to Basa, the Beer Tourism week aims to promote the 180 craft breweries located across South Africa who were hard hit by the four alcohol bans since the start of the Covid-19 lockdown in March last year. Photo: Kim Hong-Ji, Reuters.
In a bid to support Tourism Month in September and the lead-up to World Tourism Day on September 27, the Beer Association of South Africa (Basa) has launched the inaugural Beer Tourism week, September 20 to 26.
According to Basa, the Beer Tourism week aims to promote the 180 craft breweries located across South Africa who were hard hit by the four alcohol bans since the start of the Covid-19 lockdown in March last year. "This is directly in line with the theme for World Tourism Day 2021 that is: “Tourism for Inclusive Growth – Covid-19 Recovery – Building Back Better," it said.
Basa said the four alcohol bans over the past 17 months, which saw liquor establishments and outlets losing 161 trade days, dealt a significant blow to craft breweries, with at least 27 being forced to shut their doors permanently.
"With craft breweries that managed to survive still struggling to get back on their feet, we are encouraging South Africans to visit breweries during Beer Tourism week in order to give these local businesses and the livelihoods they support a boost," Basa said.
As part of Beer Tourism week, BASA has or will be launching the following exciting initiatives:
An online interactive BrewRoute map that showcases 180 craft breweries across the country. South Africans can visit the online map to see the locations of breweries in the nine provinces and to get more information on each of them. The map can be accessed by visiting: https://brewroutes.co.za/
Six unique BrewRoutes are also provided on the website which showcases six beer routes in six regions or provinces namely, the Western Cape, West Coast, Eastern Cape, North West, Johannesburg, and Mpumalanga. The downloadable maps also highlight other tourist attractions, which can be visited as part of these routes.
The biggest beer selfie competition will run from 24 September to 31 October 2021. South Africans are encouraged to take a selfie with their friends or family at their favourite brewery and upload it to Instagram tagging the brewery and BASA (@beer_southafrica) with the hashtags #BeerSouthAfrica and #BrewRoutes to stand a chance of winning their share of vouchers from breweries across the country.
BASA said it planned to continue expanding the BrewRoutes map including launching beer routes in all nine provinces over the coming months.
"We encourage South Africans to support a local brewery during Beer Tourism week in order to ensure the future sustainability of the craft beer sector and thousands of jobs," it said.
Basa urged breweries to continue enforcing the wearing of masks and social distancing in their establishment as there was a threat of a fourth Covid-19.
"We also call on consumers to drink in moderation and continue taking the necessary precautions to protect themselves and others from Covid-19," Basa said.
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