Tauranga beer tour business BrewBus has won the New Zealand Beer Awards' 2019 Beer Tourism Award. The award is the first New Zealand award to recognise beer tourism.

The inaugural Beer Tourism Award was developed to recognise the growing craft beer and beer tourism industry in New Zealand. The awards are produced by the Brewers Guild of New Zealand.

'We are incredibly proud to pioneer Aotearoa's beer tourism industry. We believe our success can be put down to simply pairing craft beer lovers with brilliant brewers; everyone has a good time on our tours," says BrewBus co-founder Katy Martley.

The growing tourism sector caught the attention of co-founders Katy and Lavina Good before they decided to start up BrewBus in November 2017.

Katy, previously a lawyer, and Lavina, previously a journalist, found that the business was 'quite a change but something we are passionate about and that we saw an opportunity in", says Katy.

BrewBus is New Zealand's first nationwide beer tourism company which ‘takes the people to the beer'.

Founded in Tauranga, the business also operates in Auckland, Hamilton, Taupō, Queenstown and Wanaka, and is looking to expand.

'I'm thrilled for BrewBus and proud of the amazing experiences they create for our craft-beer-loving manuhiri (visitors)," says Tourism Bay of Plenty Chief Executive Kristin Dunne.

The latest Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment data estimates that tourism activities and experiences contributed $100 million to the Tauranga economy in the year ending August 2019. Tauranga's total visitor economy was worth an estimated $852 million in the same period.

To coincide with the inaugural award, the New Zealand brewing business industry association has released an interactive map.

Named the NZ Ale Trail and featuring BrewBus, the map highlights brewers, beer pubs and beer tourism businesses in New Zealand.

Learn more about BrewBus here: www.brewbus.co.nz.

Learn more about the New Zealand Beer Awards here: www.nzaletrail.com/nzbeerawards.