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Post on 14-Dec-2014
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Looking Forward; Looking Back:
The Future of Local Food
Food in Waterloo Region
• Assumption 1: – Food industry entrepreneurship is growing, if slowly
• Assumption 2: – Food culture in Waterloo Region is growing, if slowly
– Why do I say this? …
Five Years Ago … or so
Some Resto Statistics (courtesy CRFA)
• Resto industry = $63 billion p.a.– 4% of Canada’s economic activity
• Resto industry employs 1.1 million people– 6.5% of Canadian workforce; or, 4th largest sector
• Resto industry employs 483,000 people <25 y.o.
Looking Back
• Let’s pick just 10 years ago:– A few precursors to a “Local Food Movement:”
– A chain-restaurant Region, generally;
– A meat-and-potatoes appetite.
Business / Commerce Opportunities Ahead
• Under-marketed [under-marketable?] restaurant sector
• Social Media / Piggy-backing on WatReg’s Hi-Tech energy
• Culinary Tourism
Then and Now: Marketing Minimalism
• Historically and Today:– Restaurants = poor marketers
• Limited resources
– Local “ethnic” restaurants in Waterloo Region• Unique but silent
Social Media in Food and Beverage• Looking back only 5 years– Little social media
– Many restaurants had meagre websites
– Few were savvy at communicating w/ customers
• Today: the same?
Future Social Media Smorgasbord?
• What does Waterloo Region’s Hi-Tech energy offer?– Growing business / entrepreneurial interest in:
• Facebook• Twitter • LinkedIn • Pinterest • Quora
Foodlink’s Food Phone App
Tourism• 2008 = 42.3 million overnight visitors to Ontario
• In terms of food, WR needs to unify programs & energies “related to industry associations, food entrepreneurs” and food communities;
• Tourism can provide opportunities for FnB entrepreneurship between a multiple stakeholders.– [ adapted from OCTA Strategy Plan]
Culinary Tourism Defined …
• A tourism experience during which:
– Appreciation
– Education
– Consumption
– Reflection
… occurs in and around food and beverage “that reflects local, regional, national cuisine, heritage, culture, tradition and techniques.”Ontario Culinary Tourism Alliance, “Culinary Tourism Strategy and Action Plan: 2011-2015” [http://www.mtc.gov.on.ca/en/publications/Culinary_web.pdf].
Who Are Culinary Tourists?
• Three distinct sectors:1. 10% of tourists plan trips based on the food experience;
2. 80% include food experience in their larger tourism plans;
3. 10% of general tourists are “accidental culinary tourists”• [UW Professor Stephen Smith / OCTA Strategy Plan]
• Obviously: Sector 2 should be our target…
Waterloo Region Culinary Tourism
• Unremarkable / off the radar
• Fragmented / disjointed
• NOT part of OCTA [should it be?]
• Some movement: CT = part of WRTMC’s evolution – All this represents:
• Potential future business opportunities• Improved quality of life in Waterloo Region
Five Years From Now?
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