'Catering revenue down by 30pc over Tuen Ng Festival'
A catering sector representative on Monday said the holiday weekend had brought little cheer to the industry, with revenues down by about 30 percent compared with last year's Tuen Ng Festival.  The slump came despite Immigration Department figures suggesting that fewer Hongkongers travelled to the mainland than those who headed out over Easter. According to official figures, some 840,000 Hongkongers headed north over Saturday and Sunday, 10 percent less compared with the number seen in the first two days of the Easter holiday period when over one million residents travelled to the mainland. “[But]I don't see any positive signs on our revenues,” said Simon Wong, the head of the Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades, in an interview with RTHK. His remarks came as official data also showed that more mainland visitors, or some 250,000 people, visited the SAR over Saturday and Sunday, over 40 percent more compared with the 170,000 recorded during the first two days of the Easter holiday. “We do have some activities going on in these couple of days, [especially] some activities in the Tsim Sha Tsui area that would attract more people, including tourists from the mainland and also local residents,” Wong said. “But in other districts in Hong Kong, it became quieter - in a way that too many people went over to the harbour area,” he added. Separately, the catering veteran noted that sales of “zongzi”, the traditional holiday sticky rice dumplings, were not ideal either, down by about 20 percent compared with previous years. “People are more concerned about [their] health now. In the past, a lot of retail outlets produced their own ‘zongzi’, but in the festival this year, some restaurants did not offer this kind of product. Most of the new [zongzi] products [did not generate] good sales either,” Wong explained, adding that some residents also bought "zongzi" on the mainland instead of Hong Kong due to the cheaper prices. Pointing to the increasing challenges faced by local restaurants, as more mainland brands expand into the SAR to test the market before going abroad, Wong said that the local catering industry could learn from their mainland peers, including using technology, to ease their difficulties including manpower issues.