HEINEKEN and Magnum Photos have released a photoseries documenting the pubs and bars across Europe that bring locals together and where visitors are made to feel at home.
11 local photographers spent the summer capturing venues in 11 countries for the series dubbed Europe’s Living Rooms. Whether it’s a Greek tavern, a Czech beer hall or a Dutch brown bar, the places may look different but they all share the same shared truth: no matter where you are in the world, you can connect over a beer.
The photography captures a window into bar and pub culture – from crowds spilling onto the streets of Soho outside The Devonshire Arms to grab a beer after work, to different generations grabbing a snack and an ice cold beer next to the Dutch canals.
But the role these venues play extends beyond bringing people together. The launch of the photos comes as new economic data reveals how Europe’s pubs and bars are changing how tourists travel and support a tourism economy worth billions.
The European lifestyle attracts tourists from around the world, contributing an estimated €828billion in tourism spending each year**. At the heart of that appeal are the pubs, bars, cafés and tavernas that offer a window into local life.
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 – equating to almost two million beers bought by tourists every day. Most of that spending takes place in pubs and bars, highlighting the important role they play in Europe’s tourism economy.
Additional consumer research released today finds that more than a third (35%) have visited a particular neighbourhood or area specifically to visit a venue, while one in five (20%) have stayed longer in a destination because of one.
Sometimes spontaneity is key, as over half (52%) discover local venues by simply wandering. The key things that make these venues memorable are the atmosphere (57%), the local food and drink (54%), and the people that they meet (30%).
For many travellers, this is because getting a real taste of a destination means going where local life happens. Nearly three quarters (73%) of European tourists agree you understand a place better when you’ve spent time where locals socialise, while more than three quarters (77%) visited a local pub, bar café or taverna multiple times on their most recent European holiday.
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. Across the photography series, strangers and friends alike are brought together by shared experiences over a beer – from the collective highs and lows of watching the World Cup at Bar Sidi in Madrid to crowds gathering around music at Campo Solar festival in Belgium – these spaces have the unique power to unite people over a glass of cold beer.
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.”
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.”
Europe’s Living Rooms forms part of HEINEKEN’s wider Story of Beer in Europe – championing the social, cultural and economic value of beer and hospitality across Europe.
