Tired of cooking? Miss going out for lunch or dinner? Our website LocalGastroBoost would offer a solution which is beneficial for both the consumer and the gastronomer!
The gastronomy industry is profoundly impacted by the pandemic and if we want to go back to eating in our favorite places, it is important to keep supporting them. We have been forced to change our habits and restaurants were obliged to adapt to this situation which is not an easy task.
That led some restaurants to temporarily close, while others decided to provide their service limited to take away. Although there are still restaurants that offer takeaway and/ or delivery, it can be confusing to have an overview of which options are actually available.
The purpose of LocalGastoBoost is to offer a free platform where all restaurants of the canton which provide take-away and/or delivery can easily put up their information, and customers can find out all the restaurants of the region in one platform. Not only the opening hours but also contact details, the address and the menu are displayed as well as the preferred method of ordering (via phone call, their own website etc.). To simplify the research for the consumer, filters can be defined on the website such as type of food, price range, perimeter, possibility to take-away or to get the food delivered. The user does not have to sign up and can simply go on the website or download the app which are both free of charge.
The canton would send a letter to all restaurants promoting the platform. Each restaurant receives a unique code to register. For the gastronomer the registration is made pretty straightforward since they simply sign up, enter the information needed and become already visible on the website.
To promote the new website to the people there are different methods used, such as the local newspapers, local TV channels, SRF, RTS, posters in town.
At the end it is profitable to every party because it gives all the information needed to the consumers, it offers a free platform to the restaurants and it helps revive the local economy which will then be beneficial to the canton.
Future development
Once the website is online and successful we would love to improve and develop it further. At the moment the website would only be accessible for information about the restaurant, however in future we would like to offer a direct ordering service on the LocalGastroBoost website to make the process quicker and more efficient.
In order for the people to interact with each other, we would bring the hashtag #LocalGastroBoost to life where customers could post a photo of their meal to instagram with the hashtag. Instagram then gets linked to the website and app to show it to all the users. This in effect promotes the economy and a sense of community during the pandemic.
Supported by the Cantonal Bank for example, vouchers for the restaurants could be bought to support them. Consumers would be paying 40 francs for a 50 francs voucher.
Author: Lital Brushtein, Shirin Dörig, Julie Grosjean, Nora Jeanrenaud