Orange County Tourism Encourages Local Eateries to Take VRLTA 2026 Restaurant Operators Survey Adapted from a Virginia Restaurant, Lodging, and Travel Association Notice provided by Orange County Economic Development & Tourism
Virginia is home to over 17,000 restaurants supporting over 385,000 jobs and delivering a total of $6.2 billion in total taxes annually. Their work is tremendously consequential for our communities, for their teams, and for their customers. As mounting economic headwinds have increased fixed costs for restaurants like electricity, gas, food, labor, rent, and credit card swipe fees, maintaining profitability has become an increasingly complex task. In fact, according to the National Restaurant Association’s annual 2026 State of the Industry Report, 42% of restaurant operators reported that their restaurants were not profitable in 2025.
In an attempt to get a clearer picture of how these obstacles are specifically affecting Virginia restaurants, VRLTA has prepared an operational survey. Orange County Economic Development and Tourism is encouraging local restaurants to take a few minutes to help VRLTA better understand the conditions that face the industry every day so that they can better advocate on your behalf to elected leaders in the General Assembly and the Governor’s administration. Responses are anonymous, and VRLTA states they will not use or disseminate any personal information.
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