PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A new online campaign is promoting suburban restaurants that have been hurting throughout the course of the coronavirus pandemic.
Hope for Hospitality is an effort by various marketing organizations in the area that are trying to encourage people to spend money at their favorite local restaurants. One way is through a social media contest.
"All you have to do is take a picture of your food, use the hashtag #HopeForHospitalityPA, and tag the restaurant," said Ben Fileccia, Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association (PRLA) director of operations and strategy for the Philadelphia region. "You are submitted into a raffle and every week, every county draws a lucky winner and we send out a $25 gift card."
The #HopeForHospitalityPA challenge is open through March.
The website will serve as a guide for what services restaurants are offering, like outdoor dining or curbside pickup.
"All restaurants are included," said Fileccia. "A lot of restaurants don't even know we're doing this yet because we want to do this for them. … We don't want restaurants to have to do anything, so the $25, all these gift cards are actually coming from the PRLA."
The restaurant industry appears to be on track to decrease in size by about 30% since last March, according to Fileccia. And regardless of the pandemic, he said January and February are historically slower times for the industry.
Some businesses have received federal assistance, but that won't be enough to help them all.
"It's not just the restaurants that are closing right now," Fileccia added. "Three months from now and six months from now and nine months from now, we're going to continue to see places close.
"Every dollar helps, and also social media helps. I mean, we are learning more and more that people are choosing where they're going just because of a simple picture."
