Business Dining Spend Hits $250 Billion as Consumer Fatigue Widens the Gap

New report tracks business dining performance across markets, industries and emerging trends.

ATLANTA, June 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- As economic pressures cause consumers to rethink the value of every restaurant visit, business dining's strong performance reveals a widening gap between consumer fatigue and the reliability of the business dining segment.

The State of Business Dining Report from Dinova Inc., the authority in business dining, leverages proprietary data from millions of corporate cardholders to analyze dining spend, traffic, and where those dollars are flowing. With an estimated market size of $250 billion per year—about 23% of food-away-from-home spend—business dining has established itself as a crucial growth engine for restaurants in a bifurcated economy.

"The narrative around declining consumer purchasing power misses an important distinction," said Dinova President Alison Quinn. "A sizable number of restaurant customers aren't discretionary spenders at all. To the corporate diner with an expense account, a meal is an investment."

In 2025, business dining spend, traffic and check sizes outpaced the broader market. Despite travel disruptions and budget resets that temporarily flattened sales in early 2026, business dining rebounded sharply; March sales increased 8.5% year over year, while traffic rose 5.3%. Healthy business travel activity, return-to-office and a resurgence in large-scale conferences boosted this growth.

Within the segment, the report highlights notable shifts:

• Performance divergence by geographic market and industry sector
• A redistribution of spend toward secondary markets emerging as major conference destinations
• Weekday dining patterns driven by return-to-office, revealing when and where business diners are most active
• 72% of business dining spend flowed through smaller, independent and regional restaurant brands

"The past few years have been defined by economic uncertainty, but our data has told a consistent story," said Quinn. "Business diners spend more, visit more predictably, and their activity follows patterns that restaurants can plan around. For operators, the opportunity is not just recognizing that business dining exists. It is building a strategy to capture more of those meals."

Download the Spring 2026 State of Business Dining Report at Dinova.com/Dining-Report.

About Dinova
Dinova by Buyers Edge Platform is the business dining solution that delivers spend visibility and savings for companies while also driving growth for restaurants. Learn more at www.Dinova.com.

Contact:
Ryan Gerding
EAG Advertising & Marketing
[email protected]
816-665-1001

SOURCE Dinova