Inclusive Food in Travel: Are Hospitality Businesses Really Ready for Every Guest?
At this year’s TTG Awards, vegetarian food was served as the default, with meat available on request.
In most hospitality settings this arrangement runs the other way. The standard meal contains meat, and anyone who eats differently asks for an alternative.
Whilst this was a small detail, it includes a wider point: How do businesses think about dietary requirements and could a different default make the experience more inclusive?
Food is part of the trip and part of who people are
The answer to this reaches past the plate and runs deep into a business’ operational process, their staff training and knowledge, customer experience and cultural awareness.
For today’s travellers, food sits near the centre of their trip with the 2026 Food Travel Monitor rating the importance of food and drink at an all-time high of 8.2 out of 10.
Yet, what tourists actually decide to eat heavily depends on their faith, health, culture and values.
Religious practices such as halal or kosher, cultural traditions, allergies, allergies, vegetarian and vegan diets all come into play. Tourism research suggests that more than 70% of tourists adhere to at least one specific dietary requirement while away, putting these needs at the centre of the conversation about where travel is heading.
Many travellers hold several of these labels at once.
A guest can be vegetarian for ethical reasons, gluten-free for medical reasons and observing religious rules at the same time.
What reads as one line on a booking form may have several constraints whilst actually dining out.
Meals are also how groups travel together. Families, colleagues and friends tend to choose where to eat collectively, so one person’s unmet requirement can narrow the options for everyone at the table
The numbers show within minutes of sitting down, a menu can leave a guest feeling looked after or overlooked which raises the stakes of a business getting it wrong.
When a request goes wrong
Picture breakfast service at its busiest where a server only has seconds to answer.
One guest asks whether the sausages are halal whilst another asks whether the soup stock contains fish.
What happens next shows how the business really runs.
Is ingredient information to hand or only memorised by certain staff?
Is the person on the floor confident enough to give a straight answer and honest enough to say when they can’t?
A hesitant answer at the table speaks volumes about what happens behind the scenes revealing how thoughtfully a menu was designed, how well a team was trained, and how effectively a kitchen communicates.
Allergies, vegetarian, vegan and halal are all different requests
A dietary request can mean very different things.
At one end sits a preference, where ignoring it leaves a meal a little less enjoyable.
Then comes a vegan or vegetarian whose ethical principles that go far beyond personal taste.
At another end sits a medical risk, where a wrong answer can lead to a hospital trip.
Further along sits a religious and cultural obligation that cannot be ignored.
A common shortcut in hospitality is treating these dietary needs as interchangeable which flattens the difference in requirements and the stakes that all guests feel profoundly.
If a guest asks for halal and there’s a vegetarian dish, the problem is solved.
But, similar words on a booking form can describe very different needs.
A list reading 'no gluten, no nuts, no pork, no animal products' flattens what are actually four entirely different needs.
Allergies and food intolerances within the food conversation are becoming harder to ignore. The Safer Tourism Foundation reports 15% of travellers have experienced or travelled with someone who has experienced an allergic reaction whilst on holiday.
At the same time, plant-based and faith-driven dining are rapidly reshaping the tourism market. The Mastercard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index 2026 predicts 262 million international Muslim arrivals by 2030, while the global vegan food market was projected to surpass $22 billion USD by 2025.
The figures show a similar significance in the tourism industry however, the difference in what they mean remains evident.
Halal means permissible under Islamic law.
Meat especially requires adherence to strict preparation rules along with other vetted ingredients and dedicated equipment which is why a dish simply lacking meat often falls short.
Meanwhile, vegetarian and vegan standards go deeper than avoiding meat and seafood: veganism also eliminates dairy, eggs, and subtle animal-based ingredients like gelatin or shellac
The differences matter:
Alcohol: Wine in a sauce, an alcohol-based flavouring or vanilla extract can sit in a vegetarian dish but not a dish for a Muslim guest.
Hidden animal derivatives: Gelatin, animal rennet in cheese, and certain emulsifiers disqualify a dish from being vegan or vegetarian while for halal dining, they are off-limits unless explicitly halal-certified.
Shared equipment: Utensils, fryers and surfaces used for non-halal food can pass it on to a dish that looks halal-compliant on the menu.
The reverse also applies: a halal chicken dish is a no go to a vegan or vegetarian guest.
Assurance matters as well.
For Muslim travellers requirements can come in different fonts.
Some will eat where everything served is halal even if alcohol is on sale, while others look for certification, Muslim ownership or an alcohol-free venue.
The same variation runs through every community.
Most Hindus follow a lacto-vegetarian diet that excludes meat and eggs, yet some eat lamb, chicken or fish and beef is avoided throughout.
Jewish travellers follow kosher guidelines, which among other requirements forbid pairing meat with dairy.
The organisations defining the future of travel are able to verify all questions asked by a variation of tourists:
Is the menu halal friendly, with the acceptable meat options and who certifies this?
Do you cater for Hindu guests?
Are meat, fish and dairy prepared with separate utensils and surfaces?
Are the stocks, sauces and cooking oils free from meat, fish and other animal ingredients, and are vegetarian and pescatarian dishes cooked away from meat?
What happens when a business can’t say yes
Not every request can be fulfilled. Some kitchens are small, and some organisations may not hold a certification a guest is looking for.
A guest who hears “no” might settle for a reduced meal, accept some risk, look elsewhere or go without. Whichever route they take, something is lost: the meal is diminished, and so is the feeling of being welcomed and seen.
That loss lands on guests who have usually done the groundwork already. In most cases the work of making a requirement known falls to them: researching which hotels cater, emailing ahead to double-check, then explaining the same need again at reception, at the restaurant and at the pool bar.
What a business does next matters most. For allergies, where the cost can be medical, an honest “we can’t guarantee this” or “I’ll check with the kitchen” is a better reply than “it should be fine.”
A response that is clear and trustworthy usually includes:
A plain and clear statement of what can and cannot be guaranteed on the menu.
An alternative offered early, before the guest has to push for one.
A note carried across shifts and teams, so the same question isn’t asked again at dinner.
No indication that the request made by a guest was unreasonable.
Tone carries as much as content. A pause, a raised eyebrow or a question about whether a dietary requirement is really a dealbreaker tells a guest they have become an inconvenience.
Many guests are already cautious about eating out. According to a 2024 HelloFresh survey, 45% of Brits avoid dining out because of food intolerances or specific dietary requirements.
Every awkward exchange adds to that caution and makes it harder for the next guest to speak up.
Are businesses thinking about inclusive food when designing menus and experiences, rather than reacting to requests afterwards?
Designing a menu with inclusivity in mind starts earlier than naming dishes.
It begins at sourcing, where a supplier’s certification decides whether halal is possible.
It continues in the kitchen, where separate preparation space decides whether cross-contact can be controlled.
It is strengthened in staff training where strong awareness of inclusive food can be easily communicated to customers.
Then shows on the menu: dishes that work for several requirements at once and ingredient information clear enough to eliminate questions.
The TTG Awards is an example of that thinking.
Changing the standard meant fewer guests had to ask. Still, halal, allergy and cultural needs still call for specific information.
A business designing with these guests in mind could put a few questions to itself, before any guest raises them:
Which of our suppliers hold the certifications that make halal, kosher or allergen-controlled dishes possible, and which would we need to change?
Who can answer an ingredient question at any hour, and where is that information held?
What do we publish about our food, and could a guest decide whether to book from it alone?
Which dishes already work for several requirements at once and do the vegan, vegetarian or pescetarian dishes hold up against the ones that include meat?
Accommodating guests without making them feel like a problem
The customers who feel least like a problem are the ones whose request was expected and prepared for.
No law dictates what a travel business can serve, good practice shows in the choices a business makes for itself.
In 2019, easyJet banned the sale and consumption of nuts on its flights to help protect passengers with allergies.
The decision sends a clear signal: guests with allergies were anticipated, and they are not an inconvenience to be worked around.
Vegan and vegetarian travellers are also now seeing the industry’s response take shape at every stage of the trip.
Globetrender recommended apps such as Air Vegan ranks airports by how vegan-friendly they are, pointing to the best plant-based restaurants in each while Veg Visits connects guests with vegan hosts in 80 countries, offering meat-free kitchens or recommended local restaurants.
In the hotel, Hilton London Bankside opened its first vegan suite in 2019 where the entire minibar and room service menu is plant-based.
The need behind them is plain.
Where personalised recommendations and adjustments were lacking, none of these businesses waited for the request.
Each planned for the guest first and that habit is the thread running through the lessons below.
What the TTG Awards menu taught us
The TTG Awards dinner began with a small shift: vegetarian food as the centrepoint and meat as the add on.
While this change is small, the lessons worth taking away are major:
1. The default on a menu is a design decision.
Whoever sets the standard decides which guests are catered for automatically and which have to speak up for their needs.
2. True dietary inclusion requires understanding the purpose and difference behind the requirements
A vegetarian dish can fail a halal requirement, and a dish with the nuts picked off can fail an allergy.
3. One label doesn’t describe a whole community.
Guests who share a faith or culture can hold their needs differently. A specific question gets a more useful answer than a broad one.
4. Your response after a request is just as important as the request itself.
An honest “we can’t guarantee this”, an alternative offered early and an update in your staff training all keep a guest feeling welcome.
5. The guest shouldn’t have to do the business’s work.
Clear, specific menu and ingredient information that is easily accessible for customers to find along with well trained teams who can answer with ease all spare the guest from researching, emailing ahead and repeating themselves.
These are habits that shift the industry towards thinking about inclusive food and each can be tested without a large budget.
Could someone starting on a busy Saturday breakfast shift explain the difference between vegetarian, vegan and halal and know where to point these options out on your menu?
Continue your inclusive travel journey with the Inclusive Travel Forum
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Whether you're reviewing your customer journey, strengthening colleague capability, improving inclusive marketing, looking more closely at accessibility or developing a wider inclusion strategy, the Inclusive Travel Forum can work alongside your organisation.
Join the Inclusive Travel Forum and the Halal Travel Network on Thursday 29 October at 1pm to explore more questions on inclusive travel through practical travel scenarios:
www.inclusivetravelforum.org/beyond-the-script-the-traveller-you-think-you-know