Deliver a quality food and drink experience

8 minute read • Last published: 25 February 2025

What do customers expect from a memorable food experience? High service standards, local produce and telling an authentic and engaging story all go a long way to delivering an experience they will enjoy, remember and recommend.

When you go the extra mile to deliver something special which helps customers taste and appreciate Scottish produce, you guarantee your business a great reputation which will lead to a boost for both your business and the local economy.

Find out how to deliver a quality experience, from reviewing your menus regularly to making sustainable choices. Look at options for telling your story across your marketing channels and reach the right people at the right time.

Create the right product

Shopper purchasing meat from butchery counter — The Bowhouse butchers

Use local produce

Customers want to find, taste and enjoy the best local produce. It helps them to feel a connection with the area and celebrates Scottish identity and culture. Offering them a taste of local and traditional food and drink is an opportunity they may not get elsewhere.

Visitors to Scotland are prepared to pay more for products with provenance, potentially resulting in higher spending. - Four in five Scots would like to be able to buy more food and drink produced in Scotland, too.

Discover how to make local produce and suppliers an integral part of your food and drink business.

Make more from scratch

Create as many products and dishes from scratch as possible in your own kitchen. This helps you know the quality and ensure local and seasonal ingredients are used.

It also leads to more authentic stories – your staff can get to know what you’re serving and why and share that knowledge with the customers.

Review your menus

Start by building dishes and menus around the local produce available through suppliers. This will put the produce front and centre, rather than integrating touches into an existing menu.

Change the menus regularly

Local produce availability will change regularly, so your menu should reflect that. Check out our seasonal calendar to see what’s available when, and what kind of produce you can use each week, month or season.

Look at VisitScotland’s seasonal food calendar for ideas.

Benefits of using local produce

Creates authentic stories
The more local produce you use, the more authentic stories you can tell your customers. Many visitors want to experience the local area as though they live there – local produce grown within a certain area is just one way you can help them have that immersive experience.
Less food miles, processing and handling
The low amount of travel and processing means it’s much more sustainable as there are less carbon emissions.
Food is healthier and tastier
Local food is fresher and tastier when it's harvested at its peak, but it also has better flavour and nutritional value because it isn’t travelling as far or undergoing lots of processing and handling.
Learn five reasons why local produce matters.

Menu examples

Showcase your local produce on your menu and across your marketing by including the brand name or location of the produce in the description.

From Homemade cottage pie to Homemade Aberdeen Angus cottage pie with Early Ayrshire Epicure mashed potato and Orkney Scottish Cheddar topping, and locally grown, seasonal vegetables.
Change Gin and tonic with ice and lemon to Isle of Harris gin with Walter Gregor's tonic water and a dried apple slice garnish.
Expand Cranachan to Cranachan made with Glen Scotia whisky, Angus raspberries, local oatmeal, honey and Mossgiel cream.

Review your service standards

People drinking in bar area — City of Aberdeen Distillery & Gin School
© City of Aberdeen Distillery

Once you have a clear idea of your food and drink experience, it’s time to think about how you will deliver it. You may need to make some changes to existing processes or introduce new standards to ensure staff deliver a quality experience.

Some key points to consider:

How can you aim to surprise and delight customers?
Are there any personalised touches you can add to the experience?
How can staff help encourage interaction and participation on the day?
Will you need to adapt your customer service for the new experience?
What staff training is required?

Showcase your warm welcome

Scottish people are known globally for their kind and warm nature, so make sure your customers experience this from booking right through to any post-experience communication.

Get all staff onboard

Make sure your staff know the food experience inside and out. They should be familiar with practical information about the experience, the business, its history, and the local area. They should be comfortable trying to answer any questions a customer may have.

Be organised and professional

Your business should be consistent, well-organised and professionally run. This is particularly important if you want to work with a travel distribution partner.

Check out our advice on customer service.

Consider the sustainability of your business

Carrying a punnet of berries — Soft fruit picking

This is a great time to review the sustainability of your business and how you can incorporate sustainable practices.

For existing businesses, conduct an audit to identify areas of waste, and research options to reduce, reuse and recycle. Remember to share how you’re improving your sustainability with staff, other businesses and your customers as part of the marketing around your new experience.

Businesses should review or consider the sustainability of:

suppliers and produce
stock levels and storage
waste
energy
water
disposable equipment
cleaning products
materials
packaging and delivery
staff
customers

Changes you could make include reducing:

food miles by buying produce locally
waste by planning menus and collecting pre-orders
costs by using seasonal produce

You can find tips and case studies for the food and drink sector to reach net zero.

Start marketing your story

Marketing your experience and sharing your story with prospective customers is absolutely key to the success of your offering. Your business' story is unique and can help you stand out from the crowd.

Your story
Don't be shy in showcasing what you’re all about throughout your food tourism experience and let customers really get to know the business, from your craft to your relationship with the community and the local produce you use.
When you’re sharing your story with customers, you want to cover:
- Your business – how it came about and why it exists.
- Your produce – where does it come from and why it’s special.
- Your staff – who are they and why do they like to work there.
- Your sustainability – what green practices you have and why that’s important to you.
- Your community – how do you work with them and support each other.
- Your area – what is your area known for and how is that part of your story.
- Your country – how does the Scotland’s history and culture shine through in your business.
Your website
Make sure to also include on your website or business listings all the relevant information around cancellations, dietary requirements, accessibility, suitability for families, and how to find your venue.
Bookings
You need a way of taking bookings for your food and drink experience. If you’re setting up a new product, you may have an existing system for your accommodation or restaurant, but it likely won’t be suitable for this new offering.
There are many systems available with functionality for food and drink experiences, which can help you manage your reservations.
Check out our advice on your website and business listings.
Your marketing channels
Social media is one of the main sources of travel inspiration. It's often used for generating ideas of places to eat and drink and things to do before arriving at a destination. Think about how you can generate imagery and video to share online.
Ideas could include:
- photographs of regular dishes
- short videos of staff and what their favourite dishes are
- video walk through of the business space interior
- imagery and videos of any special events held
- showcase of your local suppliers and the local produce you use
Check out our guidance on creating imagery and other content.
There are many social media influencers who incorporate or have accounts dedicated entirely to food and drink. This can be a great way to reach new audiences and generate more content about your business for a fixed cost.
Check out our advice on working with influencers.
Work with partners
Scotland Food & Drink
Scotland Food & Drink support food and drink businesses to achieve their full potential through opportunities for growth. Becoming a member gives you access to opportunities including networking, tradeshows and meet-the-buyer events, as well as market insight data.
You can also find a helpful list of regional food business groups to make connections with farmers, producers, markets, makers and growers.
Take advantage of the brilliant insights from the Knowledge Bank team, including making the most provenance for your business.
VisitScotland
Share your new experience with VisitScotland to see if there are any marketing opportunities such as press or campaigns.
Email travelpr@visitscotland.com to contact VisitScotland.
Other business listings
Consider other key channels for promoting the food experience aspect of your business such as:

Generate post-experience insights

With any experience, it’s important to gather feedback quickly to see if it delivers for customers or there are any improvements you could make.

Look at ways to gather feedback including sending out a customer survey or encouraging customer reviews on social media or websites.

Think about setting some milestones or targets so you can track your performance and results over time.

Read more about setting targets and benchmarks for your business.

You can also think about how to create photo opportunities for customers to share on social media. This could become another metric for your business and be a sign of positive feedback.

Take your next step

Check out our food and drink case studies to see how to grow your business by working with regional partners or a travel distribution partner.

Food and drink case studies

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