Business Dining Remains a Reliable Growth Engine

Business travelers are actively shifting dining preferences toward local, authentic experiences, according to Dinova’s Spring 2026 State of Business Dining Report. Data revealed that 72 percent of corporate dining spend now flows through smaller, regional, and independent restaurant brands rather than the top chains. 

“The opportunity for restaurants is to make sure they're visible and ready for that customer,” said Alison Quinn, President & Chief Executive Officer at Dinova. “Business diners want quality and experience, but they also need to know the restaurant will deliver every time.”

Build an Intentional Business Dining Strategy

For smaller and regional restaurants, the opportunity is to be more intentional. For larger chains, it's a signal worth paying attention to. 

“A lot of this spend is already coming through their doors,” she said. “The question is whether they're set up to capture more of it and keep those diners coming back. Business diners who used to default to familiar brands are increasingly looking for something more, an experience worth putting on an expense report.”

For business travelers specifically, food is often one of the few ways they get to experience a city, Quinn pointed out, adding that a meal gives them a chance to try something local and memorable, and when you're entertaining clients, a local restaurant makes the experience feel more intentional.

“The opportunity for restaurants is to make sure they're visible and ready for that customer. Business diners want quality and experience, but they also need to know the restaurant will deliver every time.”

The report found business dining spend, traffic and check sizes outpaced the broader market with business dining accounting for an estimated $250 billion per year, which represents approximately 23 percent of food-away-from-home spend. Despite travel disruptions and budget resets that temporarily flattened sales in early 2026, business dining rebounded sharply; March sales increased 8.5 percent year over year, while traffic rose 5.3 percent thanks to healthy business travel activity, return-to-office and a resurgence in large-scale conferences boosted this growth, the data suggested.

“I don’t think most people realize how big business dining really is,” said Quinn. “That’s not a niche. That’s a major part of the restaurant economy.”

Moment Full of Opportunity

Quinn characterizes this moment as both “complex and full of opportunity” because restaurants are getting mixed signals right now. On one hand, consumers are still being careful. They're thinking about prices, they're thinking about value, and in some cases, they're pulling back on discretionary visits. On the other hand, business dining is being driven by a completely different set of behaviors: travel, meetings, conferences, return-to-office patterns and client relationships. And even within business dining, results vary depending on a restaurant's location, format, and customer mix.

“That's why I think it's full of opportunity. If you only look at the broad consumer story, you may miss where demand is holding up. Business dining is more predictable in a lot of ways. Food isn’t an optional expense, it’s how business gets done. Relationships are built over meals. Teams are motivated and celebrated at restaurants. Travelers need to eat. That demand doesn't go away when consumer confidence dips. It just goes to the restaurants that are ready for it.”

One piece of advice Quinn offers is that operators don’t think about business dining only as the obvious client dinner or the big catering order. 

“It can be the sales manager traveling between offices who needs a reliable spot for a team celebration, the consultant grabbing a quick meal between meetings, or the partnership manager who hosts working lunches and always picks up the check. These are people for whom dining out isn't a treat. It's part of the job.”

Once you start looking at it that way, she said, the action steps become pretty practical. Are you set up for weekday lunch demand? Can someone place a group order or reservations easily? Do you have menu items that travel well? Can you handle receipts, dietary restrictions and timing without creating friction? Are you visible to people staying at nearby hotels, working in nearby offices or attending meetings and conferences?

Business diners are not always looking for the fanciest option, but they do value the experience, Quinn pointed out. A lot of the time, they are looking for a restaurant they can trust, that makes them look good in front of a client or colleagues. That also means thinking about the environment itself. Business diners need to be able to hear each other. A dining room that's too loud makes it hard to negotiate a deal, close a sale, or simply make a real connection over a meal. 

“If you can be easy to find, easy to work with, and consistently deliver on that experience, that gives you a real advantage.” 

Regional Differences and ‘Conference Renaissance’

The report found regional variations suggesting business dining is not moving the same way in every market. Some cities are seeing very strong sales and traffic growth, while others are more pressured.In the report, markets like San Francisco, Boston, Denver, Columbus, Orlando, New York City and Seattle showed some of the strongest year-over-year sales growth. Other markets were softer. This suggests this is not just a national trend that applies the same way everywhere, Quinn said. 

A lot depends on the local business mix. Markets with strong finance, technology, healthcare, business travel or event activity may see different patterns than markets more exposed to industries that are under pressure. 

“For restaurants, the lesson is that local context matters. You have to understand what kinds of companies, travelers, office workers and business occasions are driving demand in your own market.” 

The report also uncovered a “Conference Renaissance” as over half of 2026 business gatherings are face-to-face, with planners prioritizing food as the "social glue" and centerpiece of shorter, networking-heavy agendas. Due to cost pressures, 90 percent of planners are looking at secondary markets such as Nashville, Louisville, Chattanooga, and Birmingham. 

“When conferences and in-person meetings come back, restaurants benefit in a lot of different ways. It is not just the meal someone grabs during the conference. It is the client dinner the night before, the team lunch between sessions, the group that wants to explore the city after the event, or the traveler who needs a reliable spot near the hotel.”

For operators, the opportunity is to think ahead, Quinn said. If you are near hotels, convention centers, office districts or event venues, you should know what is coming to town and when. Can you handle groups? Are you easy for a business traveler to find? Can a team make a reservation or place a large order without a lot of back and forth?

“The restaurants that win those occasions are usually not winning by accident. They are visible, they are prepared, and they understand that conference traffic can bring in high-value diners who may not live in the market but are spending there because of business activity.”

Present and Future Growth

The strongest growth in the report came from financials, information technology, healthcare and industrials, so those are good places for operators to pay attention, Quinn said. 

“But I wouldn’t suggest restaurants think about it only as, ‘I need to market to finance companies.’ The more practical question is: who are the business diners in your market, and what occasions are bringing them to restaurants? That could be a pharmaceutical rep ordering food for a medical office, a tech company hosting clients, a financial services firm bringing people in for meetings, or business travelers coming through a market for conferences and sales calls.”

The opportunity is to understand where that demand is coming from and make sure your restaurant is visible and easy to choose, she noted, adding that’s also where business dining partners can help. 

“Most operators don’t have a direct line of sight into which companies or industries are driving business dining spend. Being connected to a network that already serves those diners can help restaurants get in front of the right audience instead of guessing.”

Heading into the summer, Quinn is optimistic, predicting business dining will continue to be resilient, but wouldn’t describe it as automatic growth across the board. The report shows that this segment can recover quickly from disruptions, but it also shows that performance varies a lot by market and by industry.

“The big takeaway for operators is that they should not just wait for general consumer traffic to improve or for business diners to wander through the door. Business dining gives them another way to build demand, but they have to be intentional about it. The restaurants that understand who the business diners are in their market, when they are dining and what they need will be in a much stronger position."