Breaking Down the Growing Sensory Inclusive Dining Market

KEY INSIGHTS

• Making your dining venue sensory inclusive is about creating an inclusive and welcoming environment for patrons with sensory issues
• This will allow you to tap into a growing market and help you differentiate your business from the competition
  
• Staff will need to undergo specialised training to better understand and serve people with sensory sensitivities
  
• You will need to partner with an organisation which can provide appropriate training, resources and certification
  

Sensory inclusive dining is an emerging overseas trend that’s already starting to make inroads in the Australian entertainment and dining scene – with sports venues and cruise liners among the early adopters.

Making your foodservice venue into a sensory inclusive establishment is all about creating an inclusive and welcoming environment for patrons with sensory issues – such as people with autism, anxiety, dementia, Parkinson’s disease and post-traumatic stress disorders – and this can bring some real business benefits.

Firstly, you’ll be tapping into a growing market. Many people with sensory processing disorders or other sensitivities can find dining out challenging due to overwhelming sensory stimuli. Sensory inclusive dining is about accommodating their needs – enabling you to grow your customer base by making your business a preferred choice for those seeking this kind of dining experience.

In doing this, you’ll be demonstrating your commitment to inclusivity, empathy and social responsibility. This can enhance your business reputation and generate customer loyalty while also allowing you to differentiate your business from the competition. You’ll appeal to an increasingly diverse customer base, including those who may have previously avoided dining out due to sensory challenges – all of which can give you a significant edge in the market.

To implement sensory inclusive practices at your venue, staff will need to undergo specialised training in order to better understand and serve people with sensory sensitivities. This requires an investment of time and money at the outset, but it pays off not only through the ways mentioned above but also through the flow-on benefit of fostering increased customer empathy and understanding among your team. At the conclusion of their sensory inclusive training, staff will be even better placed to deliver exceptional service, which can lead to more positive reviews, word of mouth recommendations and repeat business.

So how do you go about making your foodservice venue into a sensory inclusive dining destination? You will need to partner with an organisation which can provide appropriate training, resources and most importantly certification – as it’s this which will give your business credibility and recognition.

The leading proponent of sensory inclusive training currently is KultureCity,which although headquartered in the US has partnered with a number of businesses internationally, including in Australia. KultureCity recently certified Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium and all its programs and events  as sensory inclusive, a process which including creating the city’s first stadium sensory room. A number of other sports and entertainment venues in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane have followed suit.

Popular Victorian tourist destination Phillip Island has also been certified by KultureCity as Australia’s first sensory inclusive town – with dozens of businesses there, including restaurants and cafes, being given training in ways to avoid sensory overload for customers. This can include dimming lights, turning down music and switching off interactive displays, avoiding the use of noisy machinery like coffee grinders at certain times – and even providing paper towels in bathrooms so customers can avoid the noise of a hand dryer.

While sensory inclusive procedures like the above come at an additional financial cost to the business, this needs to be balanced over the longer term through the likelihood of increased customer patronage. Sydney-based Rashays Casual Dining has already implemented Sensory Hourseach Wednesday across its 22 restaurants and four food court locations, with the aim of becoming Australia’s most inclusive restaurant chain. And although sensory inclusive dining is still relatively new to Australia and confined to only a few certified locations at this stage, it’s forging ahead overseas. Tao Group Hospitality is the first international hospitality group to have invested in sensory inclusion training for its team members, with staff fully trained up across the majority of its US and UK restaurants.

The restaurant’s team trainings are conducted annually and led by medical professionals. They teach staff how to recognise people with sensory needs and provide sensory bags to distribute to them, equipped with noise-cancelling headphones, fidget tools, verbal cue cards to reduce anxiety while interacting with staff, and lanyards to provide priority access to quiet areas.

And the list of certified sensory inclusive restaurants in the US continues to grow – just last month Humble Pie was certified as the second sensory inclusive restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia, alongside its sister business Lazy Betty, the latest addition to more than 550 accredited venues.

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