Dinova and Technomic Release Latest Business Dining Trends & Forecast

The Q1 State of Business Dining Report uncovers new trends impacting restaurants in the post-COVID landscape.

Dinova Inc., the authority in business dining, and Technomic, the leader in foodservice insights, published the Q1 2023 State of Business Dining Report today. The latest in a series of reports beginning in 2020 offers an exclusive look into post-pandemic business dining trends based on proprietary dining and foodservice data.

“The latest seasonal and geographical patterns suggest we’re approaching a new normal in business dining,” said Dinova CEO Alison Quinn. “But there are key differences from 2019 that restaurants need to consider in their business strategies, as well as trends unrelated to COVID that will play an increasing role in business diners’ decisions.”

The report compares current business dining spend against the same period in 2019, incorporating Technomic’s comprehensive consumer-focused, restaurant data for context. In Q4 2022, business dining was just nine percentage points shy of a full recovery (to 2019 levels). Among other highlights:

• When comparing business dining spend month-over-month, seasonal trends in 2022 aligned closely with 2019.
• Though more business dining occurred in the suburbs during the pandemic, enterprise spend is returning to many metro areas.
• A resurgence of in-person meetings and conferences may drive demand for private dining and catering.
• While COVID is no longer a significant decision factor, others — like sustainability policies — will shape business dining behaviors.

The report also compares consumer and business dining spend, and analyzes enterprise business dining activity by restaurant category, market and industry.

“While the findings signal a pullback in consumer dining spend due to inflation, restaurants have an opportunity to focus on high-value business diners as they return to pre-pandemic spend patterns,” said Quinn. “We aim to equip restaurants with valuable insights to buoy their businesses in this uncertain economic climate.”The full report can be found at dinova.com/dining-report.