Europe’s pubs, bars, cafés and tavernas are becoming a part of the destination itself, drawing visitors into local neighbourhoods and offering a taste of local life over a cold glass of beer.
New research from HEINEKEN, Europe’s leading brewer, found that local bars and pubs are influencing where tourists choose to go, the neighbourhoods they explore and how long they stay. More than a third (35%) of people surveyed said they had visited a particular area specifically because of a local bar, while one in five extended their trip because of one.
With a longstanding presence across Europe’s hospitality and tourism economies, HEINEKEN is shining a light on the important role local venues play in shaping destinations, visitor experiences and local communities. The findings are backed by new economic analysis showing tourism-attributable spending on HEINEKEN’s beer portfolio is worth almost €2.5 billion annually and representing 7% of HEINEKEN’s total supported GDP contribution. Most of that spending takes place in pubs and bars, highlighting the important role they play in Europe’s tourism economy.
Europe’s lifestyle attracts tourists from around the world, contributing an overall estimated €828 billion in tourism spending each year. Pubs, bars, cafés and tavernas sit at the heart of that tourism economy, offering visitors a window into local life while supporting businesses and jobs across the continent.
For many tourists, this is because getting a real taste of a destination means going where local life happens. Nearly three quarters (73%) agree you understand a place better when you’ve spent time where locals socialise. Whether it is a bustling neighbourhood pub in London, a canal-side café in Amsterdam or a family-run taverna in southern Europe, these spaces offer something visitors increasingly seek: a chance to experience local life first-hand.
More than three quarters (77%) of tourists said they visited a local pub, bar, café or taverna multiple times during their most recent European holiday, highlighting the role these venues play in creating memorable experiences and helping visitors feel connected to the places they visit.
And at the heart of these spaces is something harder to put a price on: social connection. Nearly three quarters (74%) agree these spaces create opportunities for meaningful face-to-face connection that are hard to replicate elsewhere, while more than half (52%) have struck up a conversation with someone they didn’t know in one.
Glenn Caton, President of Europe at the HEINEKEN Company, commented: “Tourism is hugely important to Europe, and thriving pubs, bars, cafés and tavernas are part of what makes its cities and neighbourhoods worth visiting. They bring visitors into local communities, support hospitality business and jobs, and give people a reason to explore beyond the traditional tourist trail.
“But their value isn’t only economic. These are places where visitors can experience local life first-hand – meeting people, discovering local culture and becoming part of a community, even if only for an evening. Europe’s Living Rooms celebrates that wider role, and the positive contribution that beer and hospitality make to Europe.”
HEINEKEN and Magnum Photos launch Europe’s Living Rooms
To celebrate the people and places behind these findings, HEINEKEN has partnered with Magnum Photos to create Europe’s Living Rooms, a photography series documenting 11 pubs and bars across Europe.
Launching during European Beer Month, the series explores the neighbourhood pubs and bars to cafés and tavernas where everyday life unfolds, capturing the people, rituals and spontaneous moments that make these venues so important to local communities and visitors alike.
Shot by Magnum photographers across Europe, the series reveals a side of tourism that is often overlooked. It reimagines the true landmarks and postcard moments of Europe as the venues where locals and visitors come together, where conversations begin and where memories are made.
From crowds gathering outside The Devonshire Arms in Soho after work, to friends meeting beside the canals in the Netherlands, to football fans sharing the highs and lows of a match in Madrid, the photographs reflect the social spaces that help give European destinations their distinctive character.
Marine Mérindol, chief operating officer (COO), Magnum Photos, said: “This project resonated with us so strongly. Magnum photographers immersed themselves at eleven bars across Europe to paint a portrait not just of places, but of the people who make them matter – from the regular who’s sat in the same seat for twenty years, to a toast repeated the same way every night, or a football chant that turns a room of strangers into teammates. These are the details that so many miss if they are just passing through. A true understanding of Europe Living Rooms is earned by staying long enough to relate to them, and this is exactly what documentary photography can capture that other mediums can’t. It doesn’t just illustrate a place; it witnesses it. Through the collaboration with HEINEKEN, these photographs capture something true about how people in Europe live and connect together.”
