A Message from Taste of Toulouse regarding COVID-19

UPDATE: With the April 13th announcement that confinement will be extended until May 11th, with restaurants and bars not opening until a later date, all tours for the month of May have been cancelled and ticket sales for June have been put on hold until further notice.

Dear friends and guests (and guests who’ve become friends!),

With the most recent order from the French government to shut down all bars, restaurants, and non-essential shops, I’ve decided to take the difficult step of suspending operations for one month, with the possibility that it will be extended further as necessary. Effectively, I can no longer offer my tours as businesses are not allowed to accommodate us for on-site tastings.

Tours in March and April

I have reached out personally to guests with scheduled tours and tastings until the end of April to offer the following options:

• Convert the booking into a voucher that you can use to re-book at any time in the next two years. This locks in the price you paid now and protects against any future increases in price. Some of you might have noticed that I recently increased prices, so choosing the voucher option is essentially giving you a >10% discount on a future booking. The voucher is also fully transferable, so it can be gifted to family and friends.
• Receive a refund for 100% of the price paid.

Those who have tour dates after May 1 are also eligible for these options, but I am holding off on cancellations until we see how the situation evolves. If you have questions or want to discuss cancellation or rescheduling of a booking at any time in the near future, please contact me.

The safety of my guests, my community, and the local businesses that we support is my highest priority and any changes in the situation will be communicated as soon as possible. I am also suspending ticket sales for tours through the end of April and will continue to evaluate this as the situation evolves.

How you can help

The health and economic consequences of COVID-19 are going to long-lasting and spread around the world – especially for the travel and tourism industry and for the local businesses in all of our communities.

If you’re in a position to do so, and you’d like to support Taste of Toulouse and the amazing local artisans in the Toulouse community, I’d be grateful if you bought a gift voucher or two. This will help ensure that I can continue the work of highlighting the incredible food culture and talented local businesses in Toulouse and making them accessible to the Anglophone community.

ALSO, IF you’ve already gone on one of my tours, you can help for FREE without even leaving your couch! Please go take 30 seconds to leave me a review (if you haven’t already…and if you have, leave a review on another platform!). This will not only boost my spirits (and, believe me, I need it!), but give me additional visibility so that I can better reach travelers and be able to bounce back that much more quickly when this crisis has abated.

Tripadvisor |  Google My Business |  Facebook

So what’s next?

During this time of social distancing, I’ll be working to make Taste of Toulouse even stronger than before. I’m writing some blog posts that will help keep us occupied, updating my reading list so I’ll have even more cool stuff to share on tours, working on my marketing and operational strategy, spending more time in my kitchen, and planning the next “big thing” to move us forward.

Thank you so much for your support and understanding in this difficult time. And wherever you are – support your local businesses if you are able to! They are the heart of every community and they can’t survive without you.

Please keep in touch and follow me on Instagram or Facebook as we navigate this challenging time together.

À bientôt,

Jessica Hammer

Founder, Taste of Toulouse