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TikTok for Restaurants: How to Attract International Tourists with Dubbed Videos

TikTok for Restaurants: How to Attract International Tourists with Dubbed Videos

A restaurant owner friend of mine in Rome was spending €500 a month on Google Ads to attract tourists. Then he tried dubbing his TikTok cooking videos into English and Spanish. Within 45 days he stopped advertising: tourists were coming directly from TikTok, with the video saved on their phone, saying "I want exactly what I saw in the video." This isn't an isolated case. Food content is the most powerful niche on TikTok for multilingual dubbing, because food is a universal language — but the voice telling the story makes all the difference. 🚀 Why Dubbed Food Content Is a Gold Mine Italian food is the most searched food content on TikTok globally. But 95% of Italian restaurant owners post only in Italian, missing the most valuable audience: tourists planning their trips and international food lovers. The paradox: American tourists search "best pasta in Rome" on TikTok. They find videos from American food bloggers. Your restaurant, which makes the best carbonara in the neighborhood, is invisible because your videos are in Italian. The solution: Dub your TikTok videos into English, Spanish, and Portuguese with NovaDub. Suddenly you appear in searches from millions of potential international customers.Important: According to TikTok's 2025 data, 68% of travelers under 35 use TikTok to decide where to eat during trips. A video of your restaurant in their language is 4 times more likely to be saved than one with subtitles only.💡 The 4 Strategies for Multilingual Restaurant TikTok Strategy 1: "Behind The Kitchen" Show dish preparation from the kitchen. The behind-the-scenes format generates curiosity in any language. How to do it: Film 30-60 seconds of your signature dish being prepared. Add a voiceover telling the dish's story, ingredients, tradition. Then dub into English and Spanish. Why it works for tourists: An American tourist seeing authentic cacio e pepe preparation with the English comment "this is how real Romans make cacio e pepe" immediately saves the video for their next trip to Rome. Strategy 2: "The Local Secret" Present your restaurant as a "local secret" that only real connoisseurs know about. Example: "Most tourists go to the restaurants on the main square. But if you walk 2 blocks down this alley, you'll find where the real Romans eat." This type of content generates massive engagement because it taps into travelers' desire for authenticity. Strategy 3: "The Menu Challenge" Create challenges tied to your menu. "Can you eat our 1kg Fiorentina in 30 minutes?" or "Try our 5-cheese pizza and tell me which cheese is missing." Why it works multilingual: Challenges are universal and generate comments in all languages. Dub the video and watch comments explode. Strategy 4: "The Chef Story" Tell the chef's or restaurant's story. People connect with stories, not dishes. A video where grandpa tells how he opened the restaurant in 1962, dubbed into English, goes viral because it touches emotion.Pro Tip: The "Behind The Kitchen" strategy is the easiest to start with — it requires no preparation, just a phone in the kitchen. And the cooking-in-action format is what performs best on TikTok in the food category.📝 Tutorial: Complete Setup for Restaurants Step 1: Minimal Equipment No professional equipment needed:Smartphone with a decent camera (any recent iPhone/Android) Kitchen mount to hold the phone (€15 on Amazon) Ring light optional for better lighting (€20) Lavalier microphone for clean audio during narration (€10-15)Step 2: Record 3 Videos per Week Just 3 videos per week delivers results. Alternate strategies:Monday: Behind The Kitchen (dish preparation) Wednesday: Local Secret or Chef Story Friday: Menu Challenge or weekend specialStep 3: Dub in 2-3 Languages Upload videos to NovaDub and select:English (US/UK/Australian tourists — the biggest market) Spanish (Spanish and Latin American tourists) Portuguese (Brazilian tourists — rapidly growing in Europe)Step 4: Publish with Geo-Targeting For each language version:Use local + international hashtags (#RomeFood #WhereToEatRome #ItalianFood) Add the restaurant's location on TikTok In your bio, include a Google Maps link to the restaurantStep 5: Reply to Comments in Every Language When you receive comments in English or Spanish, reply in the same language. This signals to the algorithm that your content is relevant for that audience.Warning: Don't overdo direct marketing. The videos that perform best on TikTok for restaurants are those showing authenticity, not those saying "come eat at our place." Show the food, tell the story — customers will come on their own.📊 Case Study: Trattoria in Rome — From 0 to 340 Bookings/Month from TikTok A trattoria in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome, 40 seats, run by the same family for 3 generations. Zero social media presence before the test.Metric Month 0 (IT only) Month 3 (IT+EN+ES)Videos published 12 12 (x3 languages = 36)Total views 45,000 1,200,000Followers 380 12,400Video saves 120 8,500Bookings from TikTok ~15 ~340Estimated extra revenue €375 €8,500The key metric is saves: 8,500 people saved the videos for future reference (= next trip to Rome). This is an asset that keeps generating customers for months. The Most Viral Video The video that made the account explode: the 78-year-old chef making fresh pasta while telling the story of when he started at age 14. Italian version: 120K views. Dubbed English version: 2.1 million views. The most frequent comments: "Saved for my trip to Rome next month" and "WHERE IS THIS PLACE???" — exactly what you want as a restaurant owner. 💰 ROI of Dubbing for Restaurants Let's do the math: Monthly cost:Dubbing 12 videos in 2 languages with NovaDub: ~€25-35/month Time: 30 minutes per week to upload and publishRevenue generated:340 extra bookings → ~€8,500/month additional revenue ROI: over 240xCompare that with Google Ads where you spend €500/month to get maybe 50 website clicks, of which maybe 10 actually book. The comparison doesn't hold up. 🎯 Common Restaurant Mistakes on TikTok Making "corporate" videos: No videos with background music and PowerPoint-style text overlays. TikTok rewards authenticity — a raw kitchen video beats a professionally produced but soulless one. Not showing food in close-up: Food must be the star. Close-ups of pizza crust, melting cheese, pasta being plated. Food lovers react to close-up shots. Only posting during local hours: If your target audience is American, post the English version at 6:00 PM EST (midnight in Italy). Use post scheduling. Not having a booking link: If you generate traffic but have no easy way to book, you lose 90% of conversions. Use a bio link that goes directly to reservations. ✅ How to Start TodayToday: Create an account on NovaDub (2 free dubbing minutes included) Tomorrow: Record your first "Behind The Kitchen" video of your most photogenic dish This week: Dub it into English and publish with the right hashtags Next 2 weeks: Post 3 videos per week in 2-3 languages Month 1: Analyze which dishes and formats generate the most engagement Month 2: Optimize and scale — add French or German if neededFood content is the most natural entry point for multilingual dubbing. Your food already speaks every language — now give that story a voice.