Kentucky and bourbon are a famous pairing. Louisville, the largest city in the state, leaned on that over the years with an eye towards the tourism sector.
When Louisville Tourism CEO Cleo Battle first arrived in the city, bourbon experiences were just budding.
“In 2013 Evan Williams decided to build a bourbon experience,” Battle said. “At the end of 2013, we had one. By the end of this year, we will be [at] 22, 23 visitor distillery-related experiences that have been built in the market in the last 12 years.”
The pivot for the city to focus a large portion of tourism on bourbon was new. Then Mayor Greg Fischer coined the term “bourbonism.”
“I don't know of another city that has seen a built environment, as we've had, from around a central theme,” Battle said. “We've centered the theme around bourbon, and you've had all these distillers and tasting rooms build these products strictly for the visitor.”
Despite the growth of bourbon tourism in Louisville and continued tourism in other parts of the state, the whiskey’s future has become a bit murky.
At the start of this year, spirits producer Brown-Forman announced it would be laying off 12% of its workforce and closing its Louisville-based cooperage.
"I want to express my sincere gratitude to our employees, particularly those impacted by these changes, for their dedication and contributions to Brown‑Forman," Lawson Whiting, president and CEO, said in a news release.
Drop in sales, looming tariffs
The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States reported earlier this month that American whiskey sales saw a 1.8% decrease in 2024.
And a looming tariff war with Canada could take Kentucky-made bourbon off shelves in stores across Canadian provinces.
“We are up against a triple threat of back-breaking tariffs, snowballing taxes and shifts in consumer trends that have slowed sales,” Eric Gregory, president of the Kentucky Distillers’ Association, said in a news release. “If tariffs targeting American Whiskey are levied, distillery workers, farmers, truckers, coopers, hospitality staff and entire industries that depend on Bourbon will suffer.”
Gov. Andy Beshear expressed his concerns about the potential tariffs impact on the industry on X.
Harmful tariffs are putting our bourbon industry in danger, threatening the livelihood of over 23,000 Kentuckians and their families. I’m asking our congressional delegation to stand with me and fight for the folks who sustain our signature industry. https://t.co/Gdn9iRzW4N pic.twitter.com/LQyW3vPMxT
— Governor Andy Beshear (@GovAndyBeshear) February 3, 2025
Impacts on bourbon tourism
While potential tariffs will have impacts on bourbon sales, the fallout for the tourism side of the industry is less clear.
“I have always felt as though tourism and the sort of more commercial side of the industry are inherently connected. They are different, but where they inform each other,” Eddie Fieldhouse said.
Fieldhouse has long worked in Kentucky’s tourism industry and founded The Kentucky Hug, a company that helps people book bourbon tours.
He said what the bourbon industry is experiencing right now is, in part, an economic bubble bursting.
“Even back in 2013 people talked about the bubble,” Fieldhouse said about the large increases the industry saw more than a decade ago.
He said the bourbon industry has usually played it safe, with memories of prohibition never too far off.
In the past decade, big spirits corporations began to produce more bourbon for anticipated demand, but potential tariffs and declines in sales have led to a historic surplus of bourbon.
“This industry took a huge risk, and it wasn't the people here that took that risk, it was somebody somewhere that took a huge risk and banked all of these Kentuckians against it,” Fieldhouse said. “And that sucks. It sucks most importantly, for the people that live here, and for the craftsmen and makers and the farmers and all of the blue-collar individuals that are now at risk because of bad decisions made.”
Fieldhouse said despite the decrease in sales, in-person experiences are going to remain important to consumers.
“The people on the ground, the people filling the barrels, the people bottling, …they understand that it's about this one little piece of American heritage that people can actually get their hands on,” Fieldhouse said.
He believes that as time gets more uncertain, those moments of human interaction will become increasingly important to people.
“They can meet people that they would not have met otherwise,” Fieldhouse said. “And that's beautiful, and that's never going to go away, like human connections never going to go away.”
He believes the industry will survive this uncertainty like it has other tough times, but those who will be hurt the most are the working class people who create the barrels, age the bourbon and welcome people to distilleries.
