Best Practices for a Successful Restaurant Week: Implications for Stakeholder Management

The restaurant industry has been impacted worse than any other industry by Covid-19. Successful Restaurant Weeks (RW) efforts help to expedite the recovery of this devastated segment. RW promotions have become mainstay efforts for increasing customer counts and revenue. In addition, these efforts provide an opportunity for collaboration, partnership and charitable endeavors among the restauranteurs. Despite the proliferation of RW activities across the globe, little or no research has been done which assists in maximizing the effectiveness of the event. Twenty-eight semi-structured, open-ended, in-depth interviews were conducted with RW organizers from seven mainstream cities with successful RW activities, as well as Hawaii which maintains an excellent reputation for its event activities. The following provides a review of best practices focusing on marketing and promotion, increased restaurant participation, and value-added factors that may enhance RW and aid in the recovery. In addition, takeaway lessons are provided for enhanced stakeholder management in facilitation of such events.