For brewery and distillery tour managers, success can often be elusive. It’s one thing to execute a stellar tour experience with knowledgeable staff, delicious samples, and craft cocktail creations - but it’s another thing to turn those individual elements into a well-oiled business machine that attracts more customers each day. And part of that is knowing what the right tour benchmarks are.
In this blog post, we'll uncover the secret sauce for turning your tours from 'just okay' to wildly successful -- starting with the six biggest benchmarks of successful brewery and distillery tours, so you know where to focus first!
So grab a beer or pour yourself some whiskey because, by the time you read this post, you'll have all the intel needed to ensure your guests leave wanting more - of both libations and tours!
Get your brewery and distillery ticket revenue calculator now!
Why are tour benchmarks important in brewery and distillery tours?
Alcohol tour benchmarks are the averages that brewery and distillery tours see across different metrics. Alcohol tour managers often use them to determine how the tour business is doing and what they can improve on in the future.
Many brewery and distillery tour managers will collect their data and measure their current season against the revenue they’ve made in the past. But since many alcohol brands don’t have the technology to collect and analyze year-over-year data, the savvy tour manager will use industry benchmarks instead.
The six most common brewery and distillery tour benchmarks are:
- Average number of guests per booking
- Average tour size
- Average revenue per brewery or distillery tour booking
- Average revenue per guest
- Average change in Net promoter score (NPS) post visit
- Largest percent of guests by age group
What’s the average number of guests per alcohol tour booking?
The average number of guests per brewery or distillery tour booking is three guests.
This benchmark helps you measure if your guest booking sizes are larger or smaller than usual. If they’re larger, congratulations! You’re doing great work. If they’re smaller and not more private and premium tours, you might need to consider how you’re marketing your tours and to whom.
How can I increase my average number of guests per tour booking?
Increasing the average guest booking size for your tours means a change in perspective. If you routinely see one-off visits or couples, it might be time to re-envision who you’re targeting and why.
What kind of groups are you trying to appeal to outside of date night? It’s worth considering if your distillery or brewery might be more appropriate for families or groups of friends. When 75% of alcohol experience bookings happen online, focusing your attention on reaching the right digital demographic, like using GetYourGuide or changing the language for larger parties, is in your best interest.
What’s the average brewery or distillery tour size?
The average alcohol tour size is 11 guests per tour.
This benchmark helps you measure against your tour sizes. If you fall short of 11 guests per tour, you might want to consider a change of tactics. On the flip side, if you’re getting over the benchmark, it’s vital to get feedback about the experience. Are your attendees feeling lost in the crowd, and would they pay more for a smaller, more private experience?
How can I increase my average tour size?
There are two ways to think about increasing your average tour size: who’s booking and who’s running the tour.
Most tour bookings are made by women (55%) within 100 miles of the experience; if you’re considering trying to market closer to home, you might want to consider honing in on that demographic. For those farther afield, the gender varies, but that 50/50 split remains close. Consider investing in more digital or print marketing in your local communities, especially those catering to women.
An easy win also comes into play with tour guides themselves. We found that when you put your tour guide’s name and information on the booking site, you get higher ratings overall for tours, from reviews to your net promoter score.
What’s the average brewery or distillery tour revenue?
The average alcohol tour revenue is $51.90 per booking, with the average revenue per guest at $18.80. Keep in mind that this is from ticket sales alone, without any of the add-ons or on-site purchases that are often sold with the tours themselves.
These revenue benchmarks are essential for breaking down ticket prices and tour bookings. Knowing how increasing ticket prices affects the total booking sales lets you project earnings on a rolling basis and how getting more bookings or adding different revenue streams can change your overall revenue.
How can I increase my brewery or distillery tour revenue?
Increasing alcohol tour revenue is a web of decisions that can vary based on where you focus. There are many ways to boost sales from your brand home, from ticket prices to private tours, depending on where you are in your planning and established practices.
Remember how including tour guide names gets you better reviews? There’s another way to get those reviews while increasing your revenue — tour group size. It might seem counterintuitive to shrink the size of your tour group when your focus is on income, but by adding a more expensive private tour to your offerings, you can get the best of both worlds.
For example, Founders Brewery could use the data they collected from their regular tours to begin testing more private and exclusive tours to boost sales and drive different kinds of loyalty. This, across the board, leads to an increase in metrics and key performance indicators that go deeper than revenue.
What’s the average change in NPS per brewery or distillery tour visit?
The average change in net promoter score (NPS) per brand home visit is a 2x increase.
If you’ve been running tours for a while, you might already know what an NPS is. If not, it’s a metric used to measure customer experience and loyalty. This 1-10 score goes deeper than a business number. You can ask specific questions for better feedback and a fuller understanding of how your customer observes your brand.
However, you can get more mileage from an NPS with a brand conversion rate. When your guests book a brand home tour, prompt them with an NPS rating before they arrive, then one after the fact. That way, you can gauge how their view of your brand has changed after the experience.
How can I increase NPS for my brand home tour?
Increasing your NPS is connected to how you gather feedback from your guests. When you ask for specifics, you can make changes to create a better experience. And this can go even deeper than just what should be improved.
Understanding what went well and what guests want in an experience can allow you to expand and improve your brand home experience, making tours more intimate and tastings more personalized. Diageo’s ‘Journey of Flavor’ brand home experience takes personalized data from each of their guests that they collect ahead of time to make each guest feel as though their tasting is tailored to them personally. This boosts their NPS 16 points higher than other distilleries like theirs that don’t use the same kind of personal touch.
What’s the average age of brand home tour guests?
The average age of brewery and distillery tour guests is 31 - 40, a core 25% of brand home demographics.
This tour benchmark encourages anyone running tours to consider where and to whom they’re marketing. If you trend higher or lower in age, you might miss out on a key demographic that can help you grow your business and tour revenue.
How do I reach 31 - 40 year old tour guests?
This demographic can help you hone your ads, digital marketing, and the earlier pieces of your marketing strategy. Consider where to reach those guests, from where they live to where they get their news and what they care about.
Rather than just sending around social ads, use language and specific calls to action that specifically reach and talk to older millennials. For example, 95% of Millennials follow brands through social media, so using Instagram vs. direct mail would be in your best interest.
How do I collect your own alcohol tour benchmarks and data?
We’ve looked at what alcohol tour benchmarks are and why they’re essential for businesses to track. Benchmarks allow businesses to measure how well the tours are doing and make adjustments if necessary. With the ability to understand and measure customer satisfaction, improvement areas, productivity, safety, and more, it is easier for a business to plan the next steps for success.
Industry data helps tour managers succeed even more with brand homes, but learning how to collect your own is vital. Collect your key data month over month and take the averages to judge your success based on your brand’s historical trends. And if you don’t have the time to analyze it yourself, use a platform to collect that data and surface those trends for you.
Make sure you also get your free ticket revenue calculator while you're already here to track all these numbers in one place as you start planning your strategy!
