Is your restaurant close to an area that receives a large amount of tourism? If so, you’re definitely going to want to take advantage of that market.
Here’s what you can do to start attracting more tourists to your restaurant.
Embrace TripAdvisor
Attracting more tourists to your restaurant will involve doing some extra legwork at the digital level. To that extent, one of the best places to look is TripAdvisor.
For the unfamiliar, TripAdvisor bills themselves as the “world’s largest travel site.” The site offers listings, reviews, prices, and more for a wide variety of travel-related activities. These range from car rentals to hotels, flights, and most importantly for you: restaurants.
Like many other review sites, you can’t control everything that shows up on TripAdvisor. What you can do however, is leverage the platform to the best of your ability. Start by claiming your business on the TripAdvisor website. This allows you to optimize your restaurant’s profile to the best of your ability. Keep your listings updated, upload professional photos, and show off your menu. A little bit of effort can go a long way here.
Build your TripAdvisor presence by letting your customers know you’re on the website any way that you can. Link to your restaurant’s page on social media and your website. You can also place a TripAdvisor sticker up in-restaurant. You can actually request a free sticker here.
You’re also going to want to manage your TripAdvisor presence by responding to reviews. Like it or not, you’re going to get bad reviews every now and then. It’s just a fact of doing business. Responding to these reviews, addressing the issue at hand and thanking the reviewer for their time, can improve your look. For a more detailed rundown on how/why you should respond to reviews, TripAdvisor has a handy page you should definitely read through. Check it out here.
Look Locally
Another important strategy for attracting tourists involves getting local. If you want tourists to find your restaurant, then you’re going to want to have people, pamphlets, and more out there referring them to you.
A good place to start? Explore partnering with hotels. Hotels are ideal as they’re the one type of establishment with no shortage of tourists.
One of my favorite hotel partnerships involves offering a complimentary dish, usually a dessert or appetizer, to guests that were referred from a local hotel. They usually go something like this: “Let your server know you’re staying at the *insert hotel name* and get a free appetizer!”
Building a relationship with the local concierge is another tried-and-true method. When the concierge recommends a local restaurant to try out, you’re going to want to be the first one they mention. Granted, this can be challenging if you’re running a newer restaurant or simply haven’t built a strong local reputation yet. Either way, see if you can land a meeting with the concierge. Then be ready to sell your restaurant. If it goes well, you may be able to arrange a profitable partnership.
Of course, hotels aren’t the only places you can advertise. Get everywhere tourists are. I’m talking bus stops, attractions, airports, local tourist traps, and so on. Get out there and promote your restaurant.
Promote With CoGoBuzz
Boosting your restaurant’s popularity is a heck of a lot easier with CoGoBuzz, our state-of-the-art digital marketing solution. Thanks to advanced WiFi, SMS, and Email solutions, our service digitally engages your restaurant’s customers straight on their smartphones.
Want to build your TripAdvisor presence? Featuring a built-in custom landing page that’s tailored to your restaurant, accessed automatically through a one-time connection to the HotSpot, CoGoBuzz lets you promote and incentivize customers to provide feedback. They can check out your latest deals, menus, and more too.
On top of that, CoGoBuzz is designed from-the-ground-up to build your restaurant’s local reputation. We’ll set you up with a fully digital, text-based loyalty program, boost your repeat customers, and increase word-of-mouth. Check out the rest of our website to learn more!
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How does your restaurant attract tourists? Let us know in the comments!