Why are people eating out with friends less often?
People are eating out with friends less often because, for many young people, chatting on Instagram or Snapchat feels like meeting up. Restaurants that put that social moment back at the center, and are visible where guests search, win those guests back.
How can a restaurant win back the social guest?
Belgian villages used to have 5 or 6 pubs each, and many of them have disappeared because people go out less. Those who still meet up with friends choose deliberately and search online first. The three levers are positioning the restaurant as a meeting place, recent reviews that show that atmosphere, and an active Google Business Profile.
What replaced meeting up with friends?
Chats on Instagram and Snapchat. Young people feel they have already 'talked' and see less reason to get together for a drink or a meal.
Why did the village pubs disappear?
Every small Belgian town used to have 5 or 6 pubs. Most of them have disappeared because going out stopped being a social habit.
What does a group of friends look for online?
A group wants certainty about the atmosphere and experience in advance. Recent Google reviews and up-to-date profile posts provide that certainty faster than a website.
Food, hospitality and gastronomy need to become something social again. We have to rebuild that.
Frequently asked questions
Does social media affect restaurant visits?
Yes. According to hospitality entrepreneur Jeroen de Pauw of Canapé Apéro, young people often find a chat on Instagram or Snapchat enough, and go out together less as a result. Meeting up, having a drink together and actually seeing each other no longer happens as naturally. The social moment that used to be a given is something hospitality businesses now have to actively offer and make visible.
Why are there fewer pubs in Belgian villages?
Almost every small Belgian town used to have five or six pubs, supported by a strong beer culture. According to De Pauw, many of them have disappeared because people no longer go out as often. That meant the loyal regulars fell away. The venues that remain have to work harder to attract guests who are now more selective about where they go.
How can a restaurant position itself as a social venue?
A common approach is to present the restaurant as a place to get together, not just to eat. Group-friendly formats, sharing dishes and a warm, convivial atmosphere all help. That atmosphere also needs to be visible online: reviews in which guests talk about dining together and up-to-date posts on the Google Business Profile show searchers what they can expect.
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Video transcript
So the social thing is so important, and I think it's even more important now and in the future than before, because before we had not social media, we've got not other things. So when we want to meet people, when I was young and I want to meet my friends, I really have to make an appointment. We have to drink something, we have to be together, we have to see each other, feel each other.
But now I've got young kids, and even when I say, why don't you go out with your friends? And they say, yeah, but I I talked to a chat already on, on Instagram or so, Snapchat or something like that. So we lose a little bit the, the social thing, and that's very important that it, that, that we try to keep it.
Yeah. If you see in Belgium, we had a lot of pubs before, uh, you know that in Belgium they really like to drink a lot of beer, so a lot of pubs in every small, um Yeah, in every small town you had 5, 6 cafes. So it all disappeared because people, they don't, they don't go out anymore.
It's, um, so we have to try to, to put it back that it's really, uh, that food, hospitality, gastronomic, that it's really something social and that we have to try to rebuild it again.