Local catering business dropped by 30% during Dragon Boat Festival
During the Dragon Boat Festival, Hong Kong’s catering industry faces challenges. Wong Ka-wo, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurant & Related Trades, revealed that restaurants are generally not lively during the holiday, sales of rice dumplings have been sluggish, causing some stores to stop selling them. Overall, the turnover of the catering industry dropped by 30% compared with the same period last year. Wong Ka-wo mentioned that Father’s Day will probably not bring much business, and it is estimated that the turnover on that day will drop by 10% to 15%.
Wong Ka-wo also pointed out that although many Hong Kong people went northward during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, the number of mainland tourists visiting Hong Kong did not meet expectations, which was a big blow to local small restaurants in particular. He worries that without new measures, Hong Kong may lose its reputation as a “city of gourmet food”. He suggested that the industry should learn from mainland and use technologies such as artificial intelligence to solve the problem of manpower shortage, and called on the government to disperse event locations to increase the flow of people in various districts and promote business activities.
Chinese 
English