As winter festivities start, Indians are venturing out to drink, eat and make merry: Just Dial Report
Mumbai, India: With Covid cases reducing across the country, this holiday season, Indians are venturing out more to eat, drink and are also ordering takeaways more than ever vis-à-vis last year with Tier-II cities almost witnessing 4.5X growth in demand as compared to Tier-I, revealed the latest Just Dial Consumer Insights.
Online searches for restaurants, pubs, bakeries, food delivery services, ice cream parlours, and cafes have grown by a whopping 54% during the Nov-Dec 2021 period compared to Nov-Dec 2020. The growth rate in Tier-II cities was at 95% as compared to 21% in Tier-I cities.
‘Restaurants near me’ was the most searched category on Just Dial, India’s No.1 local search engine that saw a YOY growth of 49%. However, the growth rate in searches for street food (144%) and pubs (143%) was the highest as winter festivities set in. Additionally, searches for ice cream parlours (88%), food delivery services (71%), cafés (55%), and bakeries (22%) also saw a sharp spike during the season.
Speaking on this trend, Prasun Kumar, Chief Marketing Officer at Just Dial, said, “With rapid strides in vaccination, festive outings seem to be back. The strong signs of economic recovery further seem to be fuelling the demand surge in searches for restaurants, pubs bakeries, and food delivery services which in turn is indicative of pace and momentum for the overall business growth of the industry. It is also encouraging to see Tier II cities retain their usual lead in driving growth across various sectors and we look forward to many more of these intriguing trends.”
Tier-II cities have once again emerged as the frontrunners when it came to searches for ‘restaurants near me’ in with a mammoth 106% surge in search while Tier-I cities seemed to be relatively stable in terms of the search for the same category.. Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Chandigarh, and Coimbatore were the top-5 Tier-II cities that saw maximum searches for ‘restaurants near me’. Among Tier-I cities, Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore were the top3 cities that witnessed maximum demand.
Demand for food delivery services also soared in Tier-II cities by 106% while in Tier-I it remained relatively lower at 44%. In Tier-I, Kolkata topped maximum demand for food delivery services followed by Chennai, and Mumbai. Among Tier-II cities, Surat, Kozhikode, Kakinada, Malappuram, and Srinagar were the leading5 cities with maximum demand for food delivery services.
Searches for ‘pubs near me’ in Tier-I (140%) and Tier-II (154%) cities remained almost at par but witnessed a high uptick during this season. Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore, also known as the pub capital of the country, remained in high spirits among Tier-I cities. Among Tier-II, Lucknow, Bhopal, Visakhapatnam, Kanpur, and Jaipur were the top 5 cities that saw maximum demand for pubs.
Demand for street food also surged and in Tier-II (147%) cities and remained way higher than their Tier-I (98%) counterparts. Delhi and Mumbai contributed to 61% of the demand that was generated from Tier-I cities followed by Ahmedabad in the third place. Malappuram topped the list of Tier-II cities with maximum demand that was at par with that of Ahmedabad.
Notwithstanding the winter chill, searches for ice cream parlours also shot up with demand higher in Tier-I (105%) cities compared to Tier-II (89%). Mumbai topped the list generating almost 1/3rd of demand in Tier-I cities, followed by Hyderabad and Delhi in the second and third place respectively. Lucknow, Surat, Jaipur, Chandigarh, and Goa emerged as the top 5 cities with maximum demand among Tier-II cities.
Searches for cafés in Tier-I (61%) remained marginally ahead of Tier-II (56%). Among Tier-I cities, Mumbai, Delhi, and Pune generated almost 60% of the demand while in Tier-II, Goa topped the list in demand for cafes while Lucknow, Vadodara, Surat, and Varanasi made the top-5.
In terms of bakeries near me, demand in Tier-I (47%) cities also remained ahead of Tier-II (36%). Delhi and Mumbai saw maximum searches for bakers and generated almost 50% of the demand in Tier-I cities with Hyderabad third. Chandigarh, Lucknow, Jaipur, Kozhikode, and Ludhiana were the top-5 Tier-II cities that saw maximum demand for bakeries.
