The hospitality and tourism industries were, in essence, the canary in the coal mine for the COVID-19 crisis’ economic impact. It hit early and it hit hard. Experts estimate it’s possible 30-50% of these businesses may never open their doors again, ever after the crisis is over.

WindsorEats is doing all we can to provide support for local operators in Windsor-Essex. We’ve been bringing in experts in the financial, legal and insurance industries to help business owners make sense of everything. To help out our members (who have become our friends) as much as we possibly can, we are temporarily suspending all membership dues until we are out of this crisis.




We understand the need to reduce expenses as much as possible as we have done the same. We feel that any dollar a local business can keep in their pocket to help them survive through this is extremely important. We truly care about the personal and financial well-being of each and every one them.

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR WINDSOREATS?

Well, even though it means we’ve eliminated the last revenue stream we had for our business, it doesn’t mean we won’t continue working and advocating for local businesses and getting them in front of as many potential people who are in the position to support them.

We’re also taking this one step further to try and support the entire industry as a whole. We are now offering free memberships for locally owned and operated businesses in the hospitality industry until things start resembling some form of normalcy.

WHAT BUSINESSES CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS?




Restaurants, cafes, cocktail bars, bakeries, chocolatiers, grocery stores, wineries, breweries, bed and breakfasts, AirBNB accommodations and more. If you’re a locally owned and operated business in the hospitality and tourism industry, you can take advantage of a free WindsorEats membership to help you get your name out in front of people.

WHAT DO BUSINESSES GET WITH A WINDSOREATS MEMBERSHIP?

They get access to the tens of thousands of WindsorEats unique users each month who are looking for local food and drink information and the opportunity to be involved in the many campaigns we’re operating to keep hospitality and tourism businesses front and centre in people’s minds. They can send us information to share with our tens of thousands of users each month who are specifically coming to WindsorEats to learn about the food, drink and experiences in and around Windsor-Essex. Have a daily special? Let us know! Offering a special deal? Let us know! Basically, any and all things you are doing with your business, let us know and we can help spread the word to our audience. We give our members regular updates on the hospitality and tourism industry as well as other opportunities. There’s so much more that we do, too, but getting your business in front of potential customers is what’s absolutely key right now.

SO HOW DO THEY SIGN UP?

We have different application forms for different businesses:

We also have memberships for festivals and events, but, seeing that the social lifestyle is on hold for the time being and so many are being postponed or cancelled, we’re still working on a plan for the best way to support them and will announce something soon.

 

*In this moment of crisis, it is more important than ever to support the small businesses in our community. We are asking all our visitors for the smallest of favours to provide us with some resemblance of cash flow. Please click on the above advertisements in the middle of our articles. We thank you very much for your support. Stay calm, kind and positive.*