How Should Tourist Town Shops Handle the Loss of Foreign Customers and Create a New Thai Customer Base?
Although Thailand is number-one out of 184 countries worldwide in handling the spread of Covid-19, the impact is that its domestic economy is stalled, especially for the tourism sector which is one of the top businesses generating cash flow for the country and pushes the economy forward. This is due to the fact that our tourists come from overseas where Covid-19 is still being spread and the fact that the Thai government has not eased traveling restrictions, so tourists can travel normally.
Of course, tourism businesses, as well as related businesses such as restaurants and souvenir shops at tourist attractions, are directly affected by this situation. The economies in towns whose main income comes from tourism are naturally more affected than other towns. One solution for restaurant businesses in tourist towns is to expand their customer base by paying more attention to Thai customers.
This is because a survey has revealed that Thai customers still have the ability to travel and spend money. In addition, the government’s policy to boost domestic tourism is enough to encourage Thai tourists to spend a reasonable amount of money. Starting over with a new customer base might not be easy, but it’s not too difficult, either. As for how to start over, MHA has the following suggestions:
1. Start by changing your own stance and attitude.
Since your restaurant’s main target group has been foreign tourists for so long, it’d be no surprise if you’re used to having certain behaviors. In addition, due to having served more foreign customers than Thais, some restaurants have neglected to serve Thai customers altogether.
A survey on the opinions of Thai tourists reveals that a lot of them have had bad experiences with services due to the restaurants valuing Thai customers less than they do foreign tourists. This can cause word to spread within the Thai customer group and lead to them not using the restaurants’ services.
Consequently, the most important thing we want to recommend is, if your restaurant has the aforementioned stance and attitude, change your opinion immediately and give more importance and sincerity to your services to Thai customers because they will play a part in helping you see your restaurant business through this crisis.
2. Start a survey to identify your new customers.
First, you have to understand that tourists in each tourist attraction are different. They are categorized by the characteristics of each tourist attraction.
For example, tourists who visit Hua Hin beaches are usually university students or people of the early working age and small families from Bangkok since it’s not too far to travel. This group has a rather high buying power. They mostly spend on food and beverages.
By comparison, tourists who visit Bang Saen beaches are mostly there for a family vacation and so have more spending limitations.
To get information on who your new customers are, you don’t have to use theoretically correct market analysis methods. You can simply ask other tourists, search for information on tourism marketing on the Internet or use your observations and ask questions on online channels before analyzing the answers and setting your restaurant’s target group.
3. Analyze the needs of your new customer group
by considering their food and flavor preferences, paying ability and desired promotions as well as ways to communicate with them. It’s true that each restaurant has its own style of food. Restaurants that cater mainly to foreign tourists tend to cook food that cater to foreign tourists’ taste buds.
However, since you have you expand your customer base, you probably have to adjust your menu or try out which menu items that this new tourist group likes, although it’s not necessary to change the cooking style of your restaurant entirely. For example, if you have an American-style steak restaurant, you can add Thai-style steak flavors or some spicier menu items.
Moreover, making the prices suitable for Thai customers, or even creating promotional sets, can be quite interesting because, don’t forget, Thai tourists during this Covid-19 era will choose restaurants more based on worthwhileness and good prices than during normal times.
4. Look for customers other than tourists.
Company and store employees or people living near your restaurant are just as interesting. You could start by adapting your menu to these people’s lifestyles.
For example, restaurants that emphasize large sets could start offering à la carte dishes. Otherwise, they could change their hours to match their new target group’s lifestyle, for example, by selling in the morning and offering easy breakfast dishes that don’t take long to eat and are suitable for office workers.
Nonetheless, don’t forget to promote your restaurant, starting from simple methods such as flyers or a restaurant sign which will inform your customers. Then, you can expand to offer delivery to people’s homes or workplaces. You can learn more about how to “Promote Restaurant Online for 10 Times Increase in Sales” for free! Click.
5. Make your restaurant more widely known by using social media.
For example, create a Facebook page for your restaurant and create content that cater more to Thai customers. Post pictures and video clips about your restaurants. For example, review the content in Thai, present your restaurant’s outstanding points, post pictures of where customers can check in or several of your restaurant’s signature dishes and atmosphere and decorations. Moreover, if you can present your restaurant’s unique and most outstanding point, such as having a beautiful river view or a pool where parties can be held, etc., you can attract quite a bit of attention.
This might seem hard because you might not have the skills to create content like a professional, but with today’s advanced technology almost everyone has a smartphone that can take pictures and record videos. There are also many apps, both free and paid, to help you edit pictures. So, you don’t need a lot of skills to create the content. What’s left is just telling stories about your restaurant and the restaurant’s menu items and atmosphere.
Furthermore, the page needs to include a map to the restaurant, a contact number or the restaurant’s Line ID for convenience in asking questions, ordering food or reserving tables and, lastly, to boost your sales. Capping it off with a special discount promotion for people who “like” or share the restaurant’s page is another effective idea.
6. Make your food travel far. If your menu items can travel farther, your customer group will expand along with them and you’ll increase your sales opportunities. You can do this by adding packaging or improve your food packing methods to make the food stay fresh longer and not easily damaged during delivery. Furthermore, when you enter the product delivery system, which has been greatly improved these days, you can expand your tourist town restaurant’s sales opportunities even more.
Your restaurant might have to develop entirely new menu items by emphasizing items that can be stored for a long time and can be sent through the mail or a delivery service without getting damaged, such as nam phrik khua, salty boiled mackerel, pickled vegetables, etc. Also, don’t forget to promote these menu items on your restaurant’s social media.
There are still many more tricks you can use you help carry your tourist town restaurant through this crisis. Lastly, MHA wants to show our support for every tourist town restaurant out there. Whatever happens, we’ll get through this crisis together.
