10 tips to attract tourists and boost your restaurant's sales during the summer season

Tourists are returning to France this summer! Since the end of April, business has been picking up. So how can you attract tourists to your restaurant? Follow our 10 tips here!

Occupancy rates between 80 and 86% this summer Atlast, a summer season free of barriers and health constraints! A return to normality that looks even better than before the crisis. For your restaurant, this time of year represents an opportunity to attract a new clientele: tourists. The summer period is therefore decisive for your sales. To counterbalance the departure of local residents on vacation, attract a foreign clientele. If you don't, you run the risk of selling out. So how can you make the most of your chances of attracting this clientele? Follow our 10 tips!

1. Getting your restaurant listed in foreign directories

If you want to make yourself known to foreign customers, you have to start by ensuring that your restaurant is present where tourists do their research. In France, we mainly use Tripadvisor and TheFork, but directories differ from country to country. Americans search on Yelp and Foursquare, while Chinese search on Dianping or Kekanto in Brazil, so to attract foreign tourists, it's important to register on the various platforms in the language concerned. And to attract local tourism? We give you here is a list of the 14 platforms to fill your restaurant.

Download the list of 14 directories

2. Go back to the keywords searched by tourists

All over the world, Internet users use keywords to formulate their searches. As tourists, we can find searches like "best restaurants in paris", "hotspot marseille" "french brasserie bordeaux"... What terms do you use to define your restaurant? Since tourists are often visiting your city for the first time, they'll be looking for restaurants with must-try specialties, or close to strategic locations: monuments, famous tourist spots... Put yourself in the shoes of a foreigner, and build your own list of keywords, translated into different languages.

How do you get to the top of the search results for your keywords? You need to use them wisely in your Google My Business posts, in your business descriptions in various directories, in your responses to customer reviews... while maintaining consistency in your content. In this article, you'll find our advice on how to move up quickly on your keywords.

3. Adapting your cooking schedule to your crops

Every nationality paces its day differently. Spaniards tend to eat their meals much later than Germans or Americans, for example. If your kitchens close at 2pm, you're likely to get very few Spaniards. What if you were to change the opening hours of your kitchens for the summer season? This will give you the best chance of attracting tourists from all over the world. If you change your service hours, you'll need to update them on all the directories. Your establishment's hours of operation must be consistent from one platform to another, down to the minute. Otherwise, the Google algorithm will perceive the inconsistencies and penalize your positioning.

4. Translate your website and menu to meet the needs of tourists

To convert tourists, you need to provide them with the information they're looking for. And in their language! Make your website available in several languages, as well as your restaurant menu.

5. Specify its specific value-added attributes for tourists

Being on a trip in a foreign country brings with it specific needs like WIFI. Customers also need to know if they can communicate with waiters in a common language, have lunch or dinner at their usual times... You can specify these types of specific attributes on your Google My Business listing. Free WIFI, kitchen hours, languages spoken by the staff... The more details you can provide, the easier it will be to convert. So don't hesitate to add them to your listing.

6. Reflect a positive image to foreigners

Tourists come to your city for a short period of time. They want to have a good trip, and avoid bad experiences, so they check the reputation of each place before they go. To ensure a good restaurant experience, the quality reference remains customer reviews. To reassure Internet users in their decision, respond to all customer reviews, both positive and negative. Responding to them is essential to show your appreciation, understand past experience, and reflect a positive image of your establishment. In fact, 82% of Internet users read customer reviews before making their decision, and 93% of them consult the responses. Find all our advice on how to manage your customer reviews here!

7. Make people want to social media

To attract local customers and tourists alike, social media is of prime importance. They're the ideal place to make people want to come and visit you, and to whet their appetites. But there are several conditions. For an effective Instagram page, you need to maintain a consistent visual aesthetic, take care with the quality of your photos, publish regularly, vary the types of content and play with hashtags.To find out all you need to know about how to make yourself known through social media and Instagram in particular, we invite you to visit this article.

8. Create excitement with your signature dishes

Tourists want to experience the best the city has to offer! They tend to choose the "must-try" dishes in restaurants. So, during the summer months, showcase your signature dishes, specialties and best sellers on social media. How do you do it? With gourmet photos and videos, taken from different angles. Go so far as to organize a photo shoot to create quality content.

But you can still create your own content! We give you our tips for producing engaging photos on Instagram without being a professional.

9. Engaging foreign Internet users

Attracting tourists via social media is therefore of prime importance. And to convert them into customers, they need to feel involved. And that starts with speaking the same language. Write your captions in French and English, and choose international hashtags to increase the international reach of your posts.

10. Invite lifestyle influencers with international impact

→ Influencers with communities that reach tourists.