Dickson Hails Encouraging Opportunities for Local Alcohol Producers
East Antrim Alliance MLA, Stewart Dickson, has hailed encouraging opportunities for the local brewery, distillery, cidery, and winery tap houses in Northern Ireland.
Mr Dickson said: “Northern Ireland has a long and successful history of brewing, distilling, and fermenting, and these practices have played a crucial part in creating local jobs and energising our rural communities.
“In recent years there has been a marked increase in consumers seeking out experience-based activities and attractions. As such, Tourism NI launched a capital grants programme just shy of £5m in 2020, called the Experience Development Programme 2020/21. The programme will not only support tourism businesses to enhance the experience they offer to visitors, but will a crucial element in tourism’s recovery from covid and future growth.
“Tourism NI also has plans to develop a distillery trail under the ‘Embrace a Giant Spirit’ brand, which will bring eleven distilleries together across Northern Ireland”.
Mr Dickson concluded: “I have also been told that the Department for Communities liquor licensing legislation will create a new category of premises for local alcohol producers. Northern Ireland’s liquor licensing laws are notoriously archaic, but this kind of legislative change demonstrates our willingness to evolve and mature, with obvious benefits for the tourism industry and consumers more generally”.
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