By Leo Clarke, Contributor
You may already be great at attracting locals to your restaurant, but attracting traveling tourists is a slightly different ball game. It requires a strategic blend of marketing, ambiance, and unique offerings that cater to their specific needs and preferences.
Let’s explore some top tips for attracting a new clientele of travelers and holiday-makers.
Optimize Your Restaurant’s Online Presence
Tourists will often search for dining options online before they choose to visit. If you have particular dietary requirements, for example if you are a vegan, you’ll likely research the restaurants alongside your accommodation. Make sure that your restaurant is easily discoverable on popular platforms such as Google Maps, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and social media.
You’ll want to cover the basics, by keeping your website up-to-date with your menu, location, hours, and contact details. Beyond that, you should add high-quality photos of your dishes, interior, and beyond. Mouthwatering photos on social media in particular have a near magnetic effect on traveling customers.
Leverage Local and Travel-Related Keywords
This modern world is all about search engine optimization (SEO) and using phrases that tourists will typically search for to get you the most “hits.” When traveling tourists search for restaurants, they typically use phrases like, “Best local food in [city]” or “restaurants near [landmark].”
Optimize your website with these keywords to appear in relevant search results. Next, take it a step further by incorporating travel-friendly terms such as “tourist-friendly,” “near major attractions,” “authentic local cuisine,” and the like. If in doubt, check how other high-ranking local restaurants are doing this.
Offer Unique and Authentic Local Cuisine
You’ve probably heard it a million times already, but local produce that’s fresh and simply made usually sells best. Many tourists seek out restaurants that serve authentic, local food to experience the culture of the place they’re visiting. For example, Mexican food absolutely dominates the charts of authentic, local cuisine in much of the US.
Make sure you highlight your regional dishes or any local specialties to draw in visiting tourists. If you do offer a local specialty, label it as such in your menu and include a brief description of why it’s significant to the area. Consider offering tasting platters or sampler menus for tourists who want to try a selection of things.
Partner with Local Hotels, Tour Companies, and Travel Agents
One source notes that over 70% of tourists rely on recommendations from local businesses, so work with nearby hotels, B&Bs, tour operators, and travel agents to recommend your restaurant to their guests. You might want to offer discounts or special deals to tourists. You could also consider creating brochures or business cards that local hotels and travel agencies can distribute. Just make sure you include directions or mention your proximity to major landmarks.
And whatever you do, don’t design these yourself. Have a professional put together something that’s truly attractive to potential customers so you can stand out from competitors.
Provide Multilingual Menus and Staff
Another top tip if you’re looking to specifically appeal to tourists: create multilingual menus, so your traveling guests can feel more comfortable selecting your dishes. You might also choose to train staff in a few basic phrases in common tourist languages or hire one or two bilingual employees.
If you’re in a particularly popular tourist area, this will really help you stand out. Multilingual signage is also helpful, so visitors know your restaurant offers menus and help in their own language.
Attracting Tourists to Your Restaurant is Easy
With a few simple tweaks, you’ll easily stand out from other restaurants when it comes to attracting tourists. Make sure that, whatever you do, your offerings are high quality and your signage and menus don’t look homemade. Avoid typos if you’re adding translations in different languages, and above all, make your restaurant a friendly place tourists want to visit.
