Grab Lands in Boracay with Dine Out Feature Seen To Give Food Businesses a Major Boost

Ride-hailing and food delivery platform Grab Philippines has launched in Boracay, one of the country's top tourist destinations, through its Dine Out program, which aims to help visitors discover deals at participating restaurants and bars, which, in turn, stimulates local business.

The so-called superapp first launched its Dine Out Discovery program in Manila in April this year. The feature in the Grab app aims to connect users with dining hotspots around the city and offer deals and discounts of up to 20 percent. 

Ronald Roda, country head for Grab Philippines, said the platform is evolving beyond just a delivery and ride hailing app.

“As we have launched more cities and more services we now have more than 10 million customers on the platform and what that allows us to do is to be a platform to discover things,” he said in his speech at the Hosted by Esquire: Dinner and Dialogue with Grab Dine Out held at Crimson Resort & Spa Boracay.

Roda noted that there are more than 300,000 drivers on the platform, 100,000 restaurants outside Manila most of which are local establishments.

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After Grab Philippines acquired Uber Philippines in 2018, the regional ride-hailing service inherited the local UberEats operation, which eventually became the GrabFood service on the app. Grab then developed the program throughout the pandemic in 2020 by expanding delivery options and extending the food courier service to more cities. It also leaned in on cashless payment options for restaurants, seen in features like Instant Deals, which allows restaurants to offer customizable promos for their customers in real-time as they dine-in.

“Grab Dine out is really a platform where restaurants can use their own promotions to allow discovery on the platform and what that does is it puts the restaurant front and center,” Roda said. “This is one of the services by which we enable our partners to be discovered by millions of customers in Boracay, predominantly tourists.”

The country head said Grab Philippines is zeroing in on Boracay as a starting-off point because of the island's name value with foreign and local tourists.

The Dine Out program has an initial list of over 30 local restaurants and bars in Boracay with more set to be added in the coming months. The list includes restaurants like Nonie's, Fiesta Souvenir Cafe, Kasbar Boracay, Kombu Japanese Bistro, Muchos, Pamana, Royal Indian Curry House, Totally Bananas Cafe, Aidalicious Chicken Inasal, and Cheesus Crust, just to name a few.

“We are also transforming as a business to be more merchant-centric and I think our goal in the different cities is to always help the drivers and the merchants succeed,” Roda said. “And what happens ultimately is: if they succeed, we succeed because customers patronize the platform.”

At the same launch, which was held last June 5, Grab Philippines Vice President for Cities CJ Lacsican cited the need to improve the visibility of local food to tourists by making it easier for them to find a place to eat through the app.

“We can help you and are very open to these conversations on how we drive business," she said. "How do we help our micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and provide livelihoods to the community? Because we are not just a transport company or a delivery company—we are actually a platform that connects communities and people.”

The event also featured a panel discussion moderated by Esquire Philippines Editor-in-Chief Paul John Caña featuring representatives from the government and local restaurant and bar owners in Boracay, who discussed the current state of the food and beverage industry in the island, the challenges they are facing, and what needs to be done to address their concerns. The entrepreneurs also tackled how enhancing restaurant accessibility and visibility helps build a thriving and sustainable business ecosystem for MSMEs on the island.

In the Philippines, MSMEs make up around 99.5 percent of all business establishments, generate 63 percent of total employment, and contribute about 40 percent to the country’s gross domestic product.

“We want to bring our food to whoever visits," Lacsican said. "Whether it would be the recipe of your grandma or of all the food from the beachfront cafes we have here, you name it.” 

How Grab Dine Out Makes Boracay A Thriving Local Grub Hub

According to Erielyn Gaston, who runs the popular Kasbar in Boracay's Station 1, restaurant and bar owners in the island dread the “low season” or the rainy season, when earnings dip as much as 50 percent because of fewer tourists and visitors. She said the Grab Dine Out feature has helped them thrive even with a diminished customer base as more people discover their establishments in the Grab app. 

“It’s really a good time for the Dine Out deal program to become popular in Boracay to get good deals, and it’s really nice to see your own business on the app,” she said.

For the tourists that do visit Boracay on slower days, the idea behind the Dine Out program is that finding good grub when you hop off the boat doesn’t have to be like finding a needle in a haystack.

“Most of them are in the food business and are small merchants. When I met with these small businessmen, I told them, 'If you keep on promoting your business and food we (Aklan local government unit) are here to back you up,'” said Malay, Aklan Sangguniang Bayan Member Alan Palma during the panel discussion, commenting on the current landscape for local businesses in Boracay.

According to Lacsican, Grab Philippines is keen on keeping a close relationship with the Aklan LGU and Boracay stakeholders to keep providing assistance to local restaurants’ businesses even as it studies ways on how to expand services in the island.

According to a March study by the digital travel platform Agoda, Boracay topped the list of destinations for family-friendly getaways this summer.

The Philippines is also expected to see more visitors this year after President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. signed into law a measure offering value-added tax refunds for tourists, which is seen to double actual visitor spending. The move is also expected to boost earnings for MSMEs.

In 2024, the Philippines saw international spending in the country reach around P760 billion, a 126 percent recovery rate from pre-pandemic levels, Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco earlier said.

For Nonie’s restaurant founder Patrick Florencio, there was “comfort” in knowing how the reputation of Grab, its reach in Southeast Asia and its Dine Out deals program can help get his restaurant’s name out there.

“Getting that top awareness was the main thing we need help with,” he said during the talk. “I think Boracay’s doing a lot of work to get known internationally; and as a merchant you’re doing what you can to get discovered.”