Last year the Blue Mountains welcomed four million domestic visitors. These tourists spent hundreds of millions of dollars across the local economy. But too many of them missed out on the chance to support a nearby restaurant or grocery store because of a lack of local e-commerce options.

From today we’re making it easier for some of the best restaurants in the most iconic tourist destinations, to capture the demand that is already there for online ordering. We’re doing this by turning on Uber Eats in more regional towns in the coming weeks and increasing our geographical footprint in a dozen more places where our technology envelope will grow.

In New South Wales we’re going to start with the World Heritage-listed Blue Mountains, where we’re turning the app on in Lawson, Hazelbrook, Woodford and Linden and expanding into more of Katoomba and Leura. And 300 kilometres north east of the mountains, we will soon make the best restaurants on the Nelson Bay peninsula visible on Uber Eats too. That’s potentially hundreds of restaurants who will be able to offer delivery as an option for the first time, without needing to invest in their own technology or workforce.

We’re also continuing to help these popular regional destinations capture local and visitor demand by extending our technology into more streets in areas of the lower Hunter, Wollondilly, Lake Macquarie, Port Stephens, Wyong and the Southern Highlands. 

While in Victoria Baw Baw and the Latrobe Valley’s visitors and residents alike will soon see more restaurants available to them, as will anyone in Beaudesert in Queensland or Sorell and Huon in Tasmania.

We know from our third annual Pulsecheck report the immense role technology is playing in helping restaurants unlock more of the digital share of wallet. We’ve seen double digit growth on our platform when it comes to new restaurants joining Uber Eats over the last 12 months and we’ve also seen growth in transaction volume year on year for restaurants. But the majority of that injection is from online transactions which are up 12.5% over a 12 month window (compared to on premise spending which is up just 3.3% over the same timeframe).

“For restaurants across the country e-commerce growth is continuing to expand faster than dine-in revenue. As consumer habits shift more towards convenience, small business owners are looking for ways to meet changing trends. Our planned expansions deliberately focus on helping regional areas address this evolving spending behaviour,” said General Manager, Uber Eats Australia and New Zealand, Ed Kitchen, “Today’s announcement is set to make ordering from local restaurants easier for the 200 thousand residents in these areas, as well as providing a familiar offering for visitors who want to source the best of local cuisine using technology they’re familiar with.” 

Uber Eats is committing to supporting restaurants with demand generation and we’re also helping them convert demand into digital orders in two ways. Firstly, we’re making $0 delivery available to millions of Australians through our membership platform Uber One. Secondly, we’re co-funding offers nationally – helping restaurants surface affordable menu items to value conscious Australians and potentially capturing orders they’d otherwise have missed out on.

The success of restaurants is integral to our operating model. The busier restaurants are, the more demand there will be for residents in these towns looking for additional and flexible earnings opportunities as a delivery partner. To help create early demand across the restaurant and delivery sides of our businesses we will offer first time Eaters in these new locations $20 off their first five orders (with a minimum basket size of $25).

The expansion into regional Australia will ensure Uber Eats finishes the year completing deliveries in 53 cities and towns across the country. 

There are plans to bring our technology to more cities in 2025.

  • Interested in becoming a Delivery Partner? Sign up here
  • Want to add your restaurant or grocer to Uber? Sign up here
  • Join Uber Eats here to get $20 off your first 5 orders. Or go to Account > Promotions and apply code 5dealsau6j1a. Offer valid only for redemption within the newly expanded service regions. Valid only for new users. Fees and T&Cs apply.