This week, Where To Eat Guide and Associates, also known as The Eat Guide, has re-launched its dominant presence in the tourism dining industry with its new digital dining magazine, including sample menus, amenities, maps, and direct links to reservations, catering, and take-out. The first area launched is Treasure Valley, Boise, Idaho. The hotel occupancy in metro Boise continues to outpace larger cities such as Portland and Seattle.
While the company does provide paid advertising to restaurants to drive tourism business, the content and restaurant lists are curated to represent a collection of an area’s best dining options, from fast-casual to fine dining. Jason Staats, President of the company, says, “we have always operated as a trusted source of information to diners traveling. The hotel front line industry heavily supports our platform.” Pre-pandemic, the Where To Eat Guide was in over 500 hotels and used by more than 2000 hotel front desk agents, concierge, bell staff, and valets to assist guests to excellent restaurants.
Major hotel brands such as Starwood and Hilton continue to ban printed materials in their hotel lobbies which is why The Eat Guide stepped up its use of QR codes to access the digital magazine for hotel guests. In 2010, Where To Eat Guide was the first publisher to use dynamic QR codes in west coast cities of the United States. According to a survey by Statista, a total of 11 million households will scan a QR code by the end of the 2021 year just in the United States. Compare this to 9.76 million in 2018, and you can see the growth in millions every year.
The Eat Guide will continue to re-launch all of its markets over the next serval months as travel continues to increase. Those areas will include Seattle, Portland, Central Oregon (Bend, Sunriver, Sisters), and Napa Valley (American Canyon, Napa, Yountville, St. Helena). Staats also commented, “going back to a print version is not out of the question, but for now, the new world demands a more digital platform easily accessible by a phone.”
