According to a new survey by the National Restaurant Association, nearly six out of 10 consumers (59 percent) would visit a food truck if their favorite restaurant had one. This is up 12 percent from the 47 percent who said the same last year.

Food Trucks survey

Nearly one-fifth (18 percent) said they saw a food truck in their community this summer, and 28 percent of those who saw a food truck made a mobile food-service purchase.

The instances of consumers spotting a food truck are highest in the West (29 percent) and the Northeast (24 percent), with the South clocking in 15 percent and the Midwest 9 percent.

Two -thirds of younger consumers (age 18 to 44) said they would visit a food truck if their favorite restaurant offered one, while 38 percent of those 65 and above said they would do so.

Asked how they found the food truck they visited, 73 percent said they simply saw it on the street. Fifty-four percent indicated they went over to an area where food trucks typically gather.

But there’s also a big social element to it, because 39 percent said they found out from a friend and another 13 percent said they found it via social media.

This quick growth in the food-truck business has left many cities struggling with outdated laws. Washington, D.C., treats food trucks like ice-cream trucks, so they’re not allowed to halt unless someone hails them.

In Chicago, the trucks can sell food, but they’re not allowed to cook. An online petition campaign that has garnered 4,688 signatures to date aims to get Chicago City Council regulations amended so that the trucks can cook on board their vehicles.

Food trucks are also not bound by school cafeteria regulations, so some cities like San Francisco have regulations prohibiting the trucks from coming within 1,500 feet of district schools.

El Paso, Texas, had a regulation in place that prohibited food trucks from operating within 1,000 feet of a restaurant or food store. That regulation was scrapped after the city was hit with a lawsuit by the Institute for Justice.

Photo – National Restaurant Association

Related posts:
Atlanta’s Street Food Coalition – Food Trucks Galore!
Frugality Fatigue & The Future of Casual Dining
Street Food Becomes Cool

Travelers who have food allergies or adhere to a specific diet know how difficult it can be to find restaurants while on the road that not only accommodate them but also offer a variety of flavorful dishes. As for hotel brands that do so? Even fewer.

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts is changing that, however, with its new Lifestyle Cuisine Plus program that the global luxury hotelier rolled out to all 64 of its properties around the world earlier this month. The program’s new menus cater to guests with specific diet-dependent conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease and gluten free, as well as dietary choices including macrobiotic, raw and vegan diets.

Fairmont chefs have been trained to prepare a vast array of special dietary and allergy-specific meals and are equipped with Nutritionist Pro by Axxya Systems (www.axxya.com), recipe-analysis software that helps customize entrees and menus to fit with guests’ requests for caloric and nutritional requirements.

Each hotel will offer a distinct menu—typically with three item choices each for starters, entrees and desserts, with notations indicating for which type of diet or health condition the dish is safe—based on its location and availability of fresh and sustainable ingredients. Menus will change seasonally.

Yesterday I had the chance to sample a few of the dishes being offered at the Fairmont’s Plaza Hotel in New York. The tasty treats featured Grilled Watermelon and Watercress Salad with Peekytoe Crab and Jicama, Pistachio Vinaigrette; Tunisian Lamb Meatballs with Shirred Egg, Spiced Tomato and Bean Salsa, Parsley Salad; and my favorite, Grilled Vegetable Roulade with Fregola Sarda, Olive Oil Poached Fennel and Roasted Tomato Broth (pictured).

Other dishes from properties around the world include Baked Tofu with Bean Noodles (gluten free—Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa); Arame with Sunflower Seeds, Chives and Mustard (macrobiotic—Fairmont Beijing); Zucchini, Carrot, Portobello and Cashew Butter Pave (raw—Fairmont Mount Kenya Safari Club).

Interested in trying one of these concoctions at home? You can, as Fairmont is making available online select recipes from the new menus under the Culinary Arts tab at www.everyonesanoriginal.com.

The one downside to the new program is that Fairmont currently doesn’t plan to include the special dietary items as part of its regular restaurant menu and will make the special menu it available only on request. But if enough guests show interest, that could change.

The $580 billion restaurant industry is about to add a few more billions in 2011, on account of frugality fatigue - a new buzzword that’s just entered the lexicon.

Casual Dining Trends - Technomic

According to Chicago-based food consultancy Technomic, the restaurant industry is poised for a 1.6% increase in sales in 2011, based mostly on higher prices. The industry barely managed to stay afloat in 2010, with a 0.1% increase.

The expected growth in 2011 is not because consumers are feeling confident enough to splurge, but more out of boredom or in the words of Technomic President Ron Paul – Frugality Fatigue.

Technomic has also just released a ‘Future of Casual Dining Consumer Trend Report.’ Technomic EVP Darren Tristano says surveyed consumers said traditional casual offerings are too similar across brands, and that upscale casual chains do not offer a dining experience that justifies their higher prices.

The report says that 7 out of 10 consumers who have often been using coupons for casual dining say they will continue to do so even as their finances improve.

The biggest winners of these trends and the fastest growing segment of the restaurant industry today are fast casual restaurants, which offer casual dining food without table service. Visits to fast casual chains grew 1%, according to the NPD Group, and their growth is likely to be strong in 2011. Baird analyst David Tarantino agrees, and says that fast-casual restaurants and café chains which cater to high income customers are best positioned.

The fast food sector has also done well, but that’s mostly due to innovations by and demand for value at McDonald’s, whose stock rose by 20% in the last year.

The Technomic survey also sheds light on some of the industry’s more controversial debates – healthy and organic options on the menu, local produce  and sustainability. Upscale casual dining chains may not be doing so well on the financial front, but consumers say they’re the best choice to find healthy options.

Technomic survey - Health conscious casual diners

The ‘What’s Hot for 2011′ survey of 1500 professional chefs by the National Restaurant Association also has these same issues at the top of the list. Out of the top 226 trends, the first eight are related to local produce, sustainability, children’s nutrition and gluten-free choices.  The ninth hottest trend is ‘simplicity/back to the basics’ and the tenth one is farm ingredients.

For 2010, the $580 billion restaurant industry comprised 945,000 locations with 12.7 million employees, and has a 49% share of each dollar in the overall food industry. Sales on a typical day in 2010 averaged $1.6 billion.

More info: http://www.restaurant.org/; http://www.technomic.com/

According to the 2010 Airbus Global Market Forecast (GMF), the twenty years from 2010-2029 will see a 4.8 percent annual increase in overall world passenger traffic, with a demand for nearly 26,000 new passenger and freighter aircraft valued at $3.2 trillion.

Airbus GMF

This demand is being driven by two very different needs – replacement of aircraft with new eco-efficient models in mature markets, and dynamic growth in new emerging markets and low-cost carriers, particularly in Asia.

Highlights from the Airbus GMF presentation (figures for the 20 year period from 2010-2029, unless mentioned otherwise):

- 24,980 new passenger aircraft (worth $2.9 trillion) and 870 new freighter aircraft deliveries, to make for a total of 1300 planes/year.

- Of the new deliveries, 10,000 will be replacements for less eco-efficient planes and 15,000 will be for growth. Speaking broadly, the airline industry in the industrialized West is about to spend $1.28 trillion (40% of the total $3.2 trillion) on a new green fleet.

- The overall world passenger fleet will rise to 29,000 aircraft by 2029 (currently 14,000).

- Freight traffic will triple in the next 20 years, with a demand for 2,980 freighters. 870 will be new aircraft worth $211 billion, while 2,110 will be converted from passenger aircraft.

- Single-aisle passenger & small jet freighters make up the bulk (17,870) of the new deliveries worth $1,274 billion. Twin-aisles account for 6,240 deliveries worth $1,340 billion, while Very large Aircraft (VLA) passenger & freighter planes account for 1,740 of the new deliveries valued at $570 billion.

John Leahy, Airbus Chief Operating Officer Customers, said that “The recovery is stronger than predicted and reinforces both the resilience of the sector to downturns and that people want and need to fly.”

The study covers 300 passenger and freight traffic flows, and fleet analysis of nearly 938 passenger airlines and 217 freighter operators.

See the full 2010 Airbus Global Market Forecast (GMF) – Download (pdf)