AUSSIE DINERS SHIFTING PALATE
Recent data from booking platform ResDiary has highlighted a few changing trends over the last year in the Hospitality Industry on dietary preferences and cuisine popularity based on those dietary preferences.
Dietary Preferences
The shifting pallet of Australian diners can move fast in our global and unashamedly hedonistic society. This can affect hospitality operations from menu to atmosphere and can direct your marketing spend to find new and emerging audiences.
Flexitarians, Vegetarians, Vegans, Pescatarians and Meat Eaters
People can get passionate about what they ingest into their bodies, and this can be a make or break for restaurants to find the niche that suits their skills, interests, and desired consumers. A recent study by YouGov Surveys shows that 66% of Australian’s consider themselves meat eaters, 19% flexitarians (primarily eat plant-based foods, but still eat meat and fish) and only 6% of consumers are vegetarian (exclude meat and fish from their diet) and vegan (excluding all animal products), 5% identified as pescatarians (don’t eat meat from land animals, but eat seafood).
If we break these hospitality industry statistics (Australia) down across age demographics, while meat eaters are dominant in all generational descriptors there are less Baby Boomer’s who identify otherwise. There is a sense that the sentiment for meat declines with the generational shift.
Cuisine Popularity by Dietary Preference
The survey also ranks the cuisine that these demographics opt for when choosing their dining destination:
- Australian’s love their own cuisine at the top of the list, followed by Italian, Thai, Chinese and Indian.
- Australian cuisine ranks highest with pescatarians and flexitarians and is in the top five for meat eaters and vegetarians/vegans.
- Pescatarians and flexitarians rank Italian cuisine as their favourite, and it’s in the top five for both meat eaters and vegetarians/vegans.
- Thai food is third ranking for the pescatarians, flexitarians, vegetarians/vegans, but fourth for meat eaters.
- Meat eaters love Chinese cuisine, however pescatarians put it at number five. Flexitarians and vegetarians/vegans put it even further down their top ten list.
- Unsurprisingly, Indian cuisine is ranked as number one for vegetarians/vegans, but it didn’t hit the top five for meat eaters and flexitarians and wasn’t ranked in the top ten for pescatarians.
There are more statistics to read here >>> 2024 Australian Hospitality Industry Statistics (resdiary.com)