Asia Pacific

The Indonesian tourism industry experienced a strong rebound in 2023, and this served to boost the number of transactions made in travel, lodging and leisure locations. According to official sources, more than 11 million international tourists…

During 2023, cafés/bars recorded solid growth in terms of both current value and volume of transactions. This was driven to a large extent by an increase in consumer mobility, with locals being keen to make up for the time lost during the pandemic.…

Cafés/bars saw another year of buoyant growth in current value terms in 2023, with independent outlets leading the way. This was consistent with the developing coffee drinking culture in the country, as consumers sought out visually appealing venues…

Embedded finance is the critical factor to improve customer journey and drive transformation for services industries.. With travel recovery and sluggish volume sales of automotives, embedded finance is considered to have the most potential to build…

Street stalls/kiosks benefited from the normalisation of consumers’ daily routine outside of the home in 2023, with chained tea street stalls leading the surge. While other formats of street stalls/kiosks, such as those offering braised snacks, fried…

In 2023, self-service restaurants experienced a revival of its growth rate, following the challenges posed by the COVID-19 lockdown the previous year. However, the average spend per transaction continued to decline, which was primarily linked to the…

In 2023, limited-service restaurants in China saw a robust recovery in terms of both value sales and volume transactions, benefiting from the relatively low base of 2022, when consumer foodservice establishments were considerably impacted by…

In 2023, full-service restaurants rebounded from the COVID-19 lockdowns experienced in 2022. However, there was a decline in the spend per transaction during the year, which can primarily be attributed to the overall economic downturn. The…

In 2023, consumer foodservice in China saw a robust recovery in terms of value sales and transaction volumes, benefiting from the relatively low base of 2022, when consumer foodservice outlets were severely negatively impacted by prolonged periods of…

In the context of foodservice by location in 2023, there was a noticeable increase in the proportion of dining within retail, travel, leisure, and lodging locations compared with 2022. The primary reason for this shift was the impact of COVID-related…

In 2022, due to the resurgence of COVID-19 and the implementation of lockdowns, offline businesses were severely impacted, leading to a significant reduction in traffic and a high-single-digit decline in retail value sales of cafés/bars. Nonetheless,…

In 2023, tanghulu (sugar-coated fruits on a bamboo skewer) emerged as the most prominent snacking mega-trend in the entire food industry in South Korea. The popularity of tanghulu began with mukbang YouTubers who focused on ASMR content, creating…

In 2022 and 2023, independent self-service cafeterias demonstrated double-digit growth in retail value sales. The primary driver behind this success was the popularity of local Korean cuisine buffets, which provide a rich variety of options, and…

In alignment with the trends observed in 2022, the majority of limited-service restaurants (LSRs) witnessed a surge in menu prices during 2023, which was attributed to the repercussions of escalating raw materials costs and labour expenses. In 2023,…

Traditional buffet-style family restaurants faced significant losses during COVID-19, due to concerns about close contact with many people. In particular, chained Korean buffet brands such as Season’s Table, which were popular amongst…

Despite optimistic expectations of rapid recovery in consumer consumption following the COVID-19 pandemic, transaction growth in overall consumer foodservice in South Korea experienced a slowdown in 2023, exacerbated by prolonged inflation. The…

In 2023, the significant growth in sales of drive-through outlets was noteworthy. This method of fulfilment showed a triple-digit growth rate during COVID-19 in 2020, and still sustained double-digit current value growth in 2023. From a corporate…

Specialist coffee and tea shops is a mature category in South Korea, but continued to show dynamic growth in 2023. Previously, players in specialist coffee shops changed high unit prices, but advances in coffee machines led to standardisation of…

Street stalls/kiosks continued to see an increase in current value sales in 2023, thanks to the rising popularity of food trucks. Even during the pandemic, food trucks were less negatively impacted thanks to their mobility, which allowed them to…

On 8 May 2023, the Japanese government announced that it would reclassify COVID-19 as a class 5 infectious disease, which is the same classification as seasonal flu. As a result, decisions regarding infection control were left to individuals and…