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?