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Four Proven Ways to Turn Your Wine, Beer, and Spirits Scene Into a Tourism Driver

Maybe your destination is known for having an abundance of great wineries, or perhaps your notoriety comes from its locally-made craft beer. Others may be most proud of the spirits produced in their regions. Whatever beverage is your destination’s claim to fame, there are multiple ways you can use it as an asset to promote visitation and increase overnight stays. Even better, you can also create winning strategies that directly increase revenue for your local businesses. Here are four ways you can create a winning strategy to promote the beer, wine, and/or spirits scene in your destination.
February 6, 2026
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 min read

Strategy 1: Create a New Revenue Stream for Local Wineries, Breweries, and Distilleries 

If you want to find a new way to help your local wineries, breweries, and distilleries make money, consider creating a paid tasting pass. The experiences you create are customizable and can include full pours, flights, or a combination of the two. A visitor then pays for the pass and visits the participating wineries, breweries, and distilleries to redeem the offering listed on their pass. This creates a new product and experience in your destination, and in turn, is another reason for people to come and stay overnight. 

Don’t worry about dealing with the financial portion, either. Bandwango makes this part easy for you and handles monthly payouts to your participating businesses. If you prefer to have all profit sent to your organization, though, that can also be arranged. It’s a really simple process. 

You can also create different variations of your pass. For example, Woodinville Wine Country has a paid wine pass called Passport to Taste that allows visitors to receive tasting flights at many wineries in their region, but they also have specific passes available for their Hollywood, Warehouse, and Artisan Hill districts. These serve as additional options for passholders who may just want to explore one region. 

You can also create different variations of passes based on duration. The Toronto Brew Pass allows a passholder to visit four breweries each day. At each one, they will receive a beer or tasting flight. The pass comes in one-, three-, and seven-day options. Sonoma County does the same thing, and offers one-, two-, and 30-day tasting pass options. These serve as ways to encourage visitors to book longer stays. 

Many destinations create tasting passes that are available year-round. However, you can also take a page from the Calistoga Chamber of Commerce’s playbook and create a seasonal tasting pass. Their Winter in the Wineries Pass was designed as a short-duration pass to help drive business for wineries during their slower season. The result of last year’s campaign was over $135,000 in sales during their off-season.

Pro Tip: Promote your paid tasting pass for gifting. Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island does an excellent job of promoting their Flight Log Pass in their Holiday Gift Guide. Since passes are accessible as soon as they’re purchased, and easily transferable to the person you’re giving it to, these are even appropriate for last-minute gifts. 

Strategy 2: Build Signature Events Around Your Local Beverage Scene

Some destinations already have significant events and festivals to promote their thriving beverage scene, and they’re using Bandwango’s event ticketing software to help make their lives easier. Experience Arizona Wine uses the ticketing platform for multiple events throughout the year such as the SanTan Village Art & Wine Festival and Willcox Wine Country Spring Festival. They customize their ticketing options, and wine enthusiasts are able to purchase tickets that grant them admission for one day or multiple days. They’ve also used Bandwango’s ticketing software to offer tickets that include a set number of tastings. The Keuka Lake Wine Trail has also created a variety of options for their wine-focused events like Handcrafted Holiday. They’ve used the ticketing platform to let attendees choose their ticket based on which winery they would like to start their wine-tasting journey. 

If you have a local partner that hosts a wine, beer, or spirits event, you can also partner with them. Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island partners with EPIC Wine Country and uses the ticketing software for their March MAC’ness event. As it turns out, mac & cheese pairs perfectly with wine. It’s been a huge win for the destination and local winemakers and sells out every year. 

The ticketing platform for events also allows you to create promo codes that consumers can use for a discount. You may even choose to use different promo codes in various ads to track which marketing efforts are performing best. You may even find yourself with a need for a free pair of tickets to your wine, beer, or spirits event. If you’re participating in a media promotion and giving away a pair of tickets, or inviting an influencer to attend your event, you can create a promo code that someone can redeem for free tickets. Those promo codes can be limited to a one-time use. 

Pro Tip: While having an efficient and reliable ticketing platform is essential for any event, proper promotion is just as important. If you need help with marketing your event, use Bandwango’s marketing services to help spread the word about it. 

Strategy 3: Reward Your Visitors as They Taste Their Way Through Your Destination 

A check-in challenge is an interactive tool that allows visitors to collect points as they check in at local wineries, breweries, and/or distilleries. Some are beverage-specific, such as the Cumberland Valley Beer Trail, the Nebraska Wine Passport, and the Columbus Distillery Trail. Others like Cabarrus County’s Explore and Pour Pass allow thirsty visitors to be rewarded for trying a variety of beverages, including brews, wines, ciders, and spirits. 

Check-in challenges can be created on a local or statewide level. Travel Iowa actually has three separate Iowa Wine, Beer, and Distillery Passports. The state uses these initiatives to promote the wide variety of wineries, breweries, and distilleries across the state, and the passes serve as a rewards program that gives passholders points for each spot they visit. Those points can be cashed in on relevant prizes that are customized specifically for those passholders. For example, those participating in the Iowa Wine Passport can use their points to claim a wine-themed t-shirt, a stemless stainless steel wine glass, or a cooler bag that’s perfectly sized for a bottle of vino. 

While these passes are meant to be free check-in challenges that don’t require a visitor to pay for a pass, it doesn’t mean your local businesses aren’t making money. Often, the goal of a check-in challenge is still to drive economic impact. Visit Dublin decided to take one specific cocktail, and found a way to use Bandwango’s reporting data to show how much money their campaign generated for local businesses. In the first month of their Espresso Martini Trail, there were 3,227 check-ins. (That means there were 3,227 espresso martinis purchased during that month.) Since the marketers know the average cost of the cocktail, they were able to do the math and show the campaign generated about $45,000 in sales for local businesses. Even better, this was during a shoulder season when the businesses needed the most assistance from the destination marketing organization. 

Pro Tip: If you don’t know how many prizes to order, don’t want to pay for them in advance, and don’t want to be responsible for distributing them to winners, check out Bandwango’s prize fulfillment program. This allows you to have a wide selection of prizes that are specific to the theme of your pass, making it appealing to passholders. By using this service, the Ohio Distillers Guild has seven cool prizes that their Ohio Distillery Trail passholders can choose from. 

Strategy 4: Package Discounts Into a High-Value Savings Pass

Think of a savings pass as a digital coupon book. A digital savings pass is a sustainable option that also gives you many options for customization and real-time changes. While discounts can be included on gamified, check-in challenges, it’s also possible to create a pass that solely consists of discounts. 

If you prefer, you can create a savings pass that is limited to one particular beverage or theme. Many destinations also choose to create a savings pass that encompasses more experiences in their destination, and include wineries, breweries, and distilleries on those passes. For example, Visit Stockton’s Savings Pass includes two discounts for Taps Barrel House. If a passholder prefers to get a flight, they can get $1 off. However, they also have the option to buy one draft beer and get another for free. It’s easy to add multiple discounts for each participating business.

While many savings passes are free, you also have the opportunity to create a paid savings pass. A successful example of this is the Western New York Beer Trail. Beer-lovers pay for the pass each year and are granted the opportunity to get BOGO beer at many popular spots around Buffalo. The WNY Beer Trail has developed quite a following over the years and now even sells their own merchandise

Pro Tip: Encourage participating businesses to create enticing deals. Put yourself in the consumer’s shoes and think about what types of discounts would be appealing to you. For example, a “Buy One, Get One Free” discount is more enticing than “5% Off.” Once your pass launches, keep an eye on your Bandwango reporting data and you’ll be able to see which discounts are performing best.  

No matter your beverage of choice, there are a variety of ways that Bandwango can help promote your destination’s wineries, breweries, and distilleries. With a curated pass, you can give visitors an easy way to explore your area. Beverage passes don’t have to be focused on adult beverages, either. Coffee-themed passes have been a huge economic driver for some communities as well. We’ve even helped create passes that sent visitors on boba-tasting journeys through Pasadena and Seattle Southside

If you’re a beverage association, destination marketing organization, chamber of commerce, or downtown district that’s interested in helping your local wineries, breweries, and distilleries, we would love to help. Reach out to us and we can put together a customized strategy to help meet your goals. 

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