Food & Hospitality
7 industries · 53 businesses scored · Rank 6 of 11
Food and Hospitality sits sixth at 64.5, just above the national average. Brand and Positioning at 67.8 is the sector's strongest dimension, nearly 3 points above average. This reflects the reality that hospitality businesses live or die on reputation, reviews and word of mouth. The best operators in this space have always understood brand, even if they would not call it that.
The sector spans a wide range of business models, from fast food chains with national media budgets to independent restaurants running on Instagram and hope. Fast Food and QSR at 67.9 and Travel Agencies at 68.3 lead the sector. Tourism at 60.0 and independent restaurants at 61.8 sit at the bottom. The gap is not about food quality. It is about marketing infrastructure.
Data and Tracking at 57.8 is the lowest of any major sector. Most hospitality businesses do not have a CRM, do not track customer lifetime value and cannot attribute bookings to specific marketing channels. This is the single biggest drag on the sector's composite score.
Travel Agencies at 68.3 are the highest-scoring vertical in this sector, outperforming Fast Food and QSR. Agencies that survived the post-COVID shakeout are lean, digitally sharp and converting at high rates.
Dimension breakdown
Food & Hospitality leads on Brand & Positioning (67.1, +2.9 vs national) and has the most room to move in Retention & Loyalty (62.2, -0.2 vs national).
Industries in Food & Hospitality
Dimension breakdown by industry
Each row is one industry. Each bar shows its score on that dimension. The dashed line marks the sector average.
Does bigger mean better?
Average score by industry and company scale
| Industry | Enterprise | Large | Medium | Small Business |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Travel Agencies & Tour Operators | 78.8 1 biz | 78.7 1 biz | 71.4 3 businesses | 55.7 2 businesses |
| Fast Food & QSR | 73.5 4 businesses | 75.7 1 biz | 66.8 4 businesses | 59.2 3 businesses |
| Hotels & Resorts | — | 76 3 businesses | 62 4 businesses | 53.6 2 businesses |
| Restaurants & Independent Food Service | — | 69.3 1 biz | 59.3 3 businesses | — |
| Cafes & Coffee Chains | — | 71.7 3 businesses | 60.5 4 businesses | 52.2 1 biz |
| Tourism & Experiences | — | 69.1 3 businesses | 55.8 4 businesses | 49.2 1 biz |
| Events, Weddings & Experiences | — | 68.2 3 businesses | 61.3 2 businesses | — |
Inside each industry
Every scored business, grouped by industry. Taller bars mean higher scores.
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What to watch in food and hospitality
Reservation and ordering platforms (OpenTable, Mr Yum, Square) are creating a data layer that most hospitality businesses never had. The venues plugging this data into marketing decisions will see disproportionate gains in Retention and Data Tracking scores over the next 12 months.
Events, Weddings and Experiences at 65.4 is a growth vertical. Experience-driven spending is rising in Australia and the businesses in this space that invest in content marketing and SEO will capture demand that previously went through word of mouth alone.
What the numbers reveal
Based on 53 scored businesses across 7 industries. Updated as new audits complete.
19.3-point gap between Enterprise and Small Business
Enterprise businesses average 74.6. Small Business averages 55.3. Scale creates a 19.3-point advantage in this sector, driven by dedicated marketing teams and infrastructure investment.
ASX-listed companies score 9.1 points higher than unlisted
2 ASX-listed businesses average 73.7 vs 64.6 for 51 unlisted. Public reporting discipline and larger budgets correlate with stronger marketing maturity.
Brand & Positioning (67.1) is the sector's edge. Data & Tracking (57.4) is the drag.
A 9.7-point spread between the strongest and weakest dimensions. Brand & Positioning is 2.9 points above the national average. Data & Tracking sits 0.2 points below national average.
0.4 points above the national average of 63.7
Food & Hospitality ranks 6 of 11 sectors. The gap is closeable. These are not structurally weak businesses. They are businesses that have not prioritised digital marketing.
NSW dominates with 24 of 53 businesses
45% of scored businesses in this sector are headquartered in NSW, averaging 66.6. VIC (14), QLD (10), SA (4) follow.
Domino's Pizza Enterprises leads the sector at 80.3
16.3 points above the sector average. Scores 12.4 points above its own industry (Fast Food & QSR). ASX-listed. Enterprise scale, based in QLD.
What people ask about this sector
Top performers in Food & Hospitality
Highest-scoring businesses across all food & hospitality industries
Sector rankings
How does your business compare?
Get your own score across all 6 dimensions, benchmarked against 7 food & hospitality industries and 700+ Australian businesses.