BC Ale Trail Responds to COVID-19

The BC Ale Trail, which began in 2015, is a series of self-guided itineraries highlighting local craft brewery destinations and the super, natural landscapes that surround them. The team of community destination management organizations and breweries have innovated to respond to COVID-19.

The breweries have instituted new safety measures within the tap rooms, along with impressive displays of creativity with pop-up patios. This has allowed the BC Ale Trail to showcase their breweries in new ways to highlight their contribution and commitment to providing exceptional experiences for local craft beer tourism.

In order to provide reassurance to patrons, new photo and video assets with COVID-19 safety protocols are being created.  This includes staff in masks, physical distancing signage, plexiglass barriers, and a spotlight on new pop-up outdoor spaces, delivery and touchless pick up of packaged product.

Content was created as part of an awareness campaign to show consumers that the breweries are following protocols to keep both them and their staff safe, and a reminder to be mindful themselves of the protocols.

The BC Ale Trail has also developed new content this year in alignment with the Destination BC experience collections that were featured in the summer ExploreBC campaign.   The first project focusing on this alignment was our Recovery Video Series, which spliced video content by consumer experiences like Explore Vancouver & the Sea-to-Sky This Fall and Explore BC’s West Coast Culture This Fall.

Also new this year is the BC Ale Trail newsletter, featuring blog releases, beer news, and offers the opportunity for community DMO spotlights, bookable experiences and Destination BC travel safe messaging.

The BC Ale Trail also actively supports Destination BC’s content commonwealth goals and have published 25 BC Story Network stories featuring Ale Trails and destination management organization spotlights.  In addition, they have purchased a Crowdriff license and the first 5 galleries have been published on the website and they have been working on 13 more.

Lastly, the Explore BC IPA, released in October to celebrate BC Craft Beer Month,  was a limited-edition beer and an exciting collaboration between the BC Ale Trail Team and six craft breweries across the province.

Learn more about the BC Ale Trail: https://bcaletrail.ca/