Techniques for attracting foreign customers to your store during the New Year's Eve festival
Thailand has always been a top destination for international tourists. In 2019, it was estimated that the revenue from international tourists would be around 2.04 trillion baht out of a total of 39.8 million tourists. In 2020, the Tourism Authority of Thailand has a target of generating 2.22 trillion baht in revenue from international tourists. Of course, food is one of the important activities that attracts money from tourists. Therefore, it is a good opportunity for the restaurant business sector to earn money from tourists. But how can we make tourists choose our restaurant as a destination? We have some techniques to recommend.
In attracting foreign customers to your restaurant, the principle of getting customers to your restaurant is the same as attracting Thai customers to your restaurant. That is, in addition to the quality of the products and the standards of service that must be at a very good level, adding a story to your restaurant and products is one of the important things. Foreign tourists of all nationalities tend to give importance to stories related to things they are interested in. Therefore, if your restaurant has an interesting story, such as having an award-winning chef, being guaranteed by various media, having an interesting history, a unique menu that can tell a story, including the decoration of the dishes, it is another good point to attract customers.
But all of the above will be of no use if we do not make our restaurant known to tourists! Therefore, business operators must market their restaurants to be known on channels that tourists like to use to search for or read reviews of places to eat and visit, because just marketing on Facebook or Google may not be effective for foreign tourists. The 4 most popular channels that tourists like to use to read reviews of places to eat and visit around the world, which restaurant owners who want to attract foreign customers must know about and bring their restaurants to be seen by tourists, are:
Tripadvisor
The travel website and application with 260 million registered users per month has more than 125 million restaurant and hotel reviews, most of which are restaurants followed by accommodations. With a large number of users worldwide and the “Tripadvisor” system that meets the needs of tourists in terms of food, sightseeing, and travel, Tripadvisor is a great channel for promoting restaurants to tourists. There are two ways to promote a restaurant on Tripadvisor: Register as a member of the website to request to record the restaurant’s location on the TripAdvisor website. Before requesting to record the restaurant’s location, go to th.tripadvisor.com/Owners to check if tourists have reviewed your restaurant. Type the name of your restaurant in the search box. If your restaurant’s name appears, it means that a tourist has written a review on TripAdvisor. All business owners need to do is “claim your business” to confirm that we are related to that place of business. If you can’t find the restaurant’s name, you can request to record the location or have friends who are already TripAdvisor members help write a review of your restaurant. That’s it! You can use the Owners mode to promote your restaurant to make it more known to tourists around the world. See how to register and use Tripadvisor at:https://th.tripadvisor.com/Owners
Dianping
The number 1 application for Chinese people around the world, which is popularly used to search for places to eat, travel, and stay, as well as shopping malls, entertainment venues, and various types of service shops. If you are looking for Chinese customers, “Dianping” is the number 1 choice for a public relations channel for Chinese tourists to get to know you. Using it may require Chinese language skills. The steps for using the service are similar to “Tripadvisor”: you must register as a member in order to promote the shop, or have someone who is a Dianping member help write a review for you. See information on how to register and use Dianping at:http://www.dianping.com/
C-trip
Another website and application for finding places to eat, travel, and stay for Chinese people that is gaining popularity is a channel that helps manage travel trips in every step, including booking accommodations, booking flights, and various deals. There are more than 5 million Chinese tourists who come to Thailand and use the services of "Ctrip" per year and the number is continually increasing. It is not only Chinese people, there are also people from other countries who use Ctrip's services as well. Because Ctrip supports services in 17 languages, including Thai, it is another interesting communication channel for foreign customers, especially Chinese people. See information on how to apply and use C-trip at:https://th.trip.com/?locale=th-TH
Baidu: The largest search engine platform in China, with no less than 800 million Chinese people visiting each month. Therefore, if we want Chinese customers, Baidu is a very important channel for publicizing our business to be known. The marketing method on Baidu is similar to Google, which is to buy advertising to have our store appear on the Baidu search engine. However, the restrictions and prohibitions set by the Chinese government for foreign businesses to advertise on Baidu make it quite difficult for business owners to do it themselves. The best way right now is to use the services of a Digital Marketing Agency that accepts advertising on Baidu.
Another channel that has been popular for a long time and is still effective is to make an official deal with a tour company to include our restaurant in the itinerary in exchange for a percentage per head that must be paid to the tour company. This method will allow us to get a tour group with a fixed number of tourists and a clear schedule so that the restaurant can plan and manage the work. The tourism industry of Thailand is one of the government's income-generating plans for the country in every era, causing related businesses such as the food business to directly benefit as well. The group of international tourist customers is another group that restaurants should not overlook, especially restaurants that are in tourist target locations.
