Czech Republic: Chodovar brewery’s beer baths turned out to be a success

Czech Republic’s Chodovar brewery increased revenue by a third last year by getting its customers to bathe in beer as well as drink it, Bloomberg reported March 25.

The Chodovar brewery in Chodova Plana boosted sales by 30 percent last year as its beer spa, a restaurant and related accommodation services attracted tourists, manager Mojmir Prokes said this week. He declined to give a specific sales figure, but it was reported by news agency CTK as 150 million koruna (R52 million).

"We did not expect such a success," Prokes said. "After a year, we see that there is plenty of interest for the baths and the health benefits they bring."

While mainly aimed at foreign tourists, the beer baths have combined two Czech national pastimes, health spas and beer.

Czechs are the world's biggest beer consumers per capita, and the Chodovar baths are located close to the western spa resorts of Karlovy Vary and Marianske Lazne.

Prokes added that his brewery would be introducing three new treatments in May, including warm body wraps in vitamin-rich brewer's grains.

28 March, 2007