11th September 2022 – (Hong Kong) According to industry sources, the business of many restaurants in the evening market during the Mid-Autumn Festival yesterday was worse than expected, about 30-40% less than last year’s Mid-Autumn Festival while the business of Chinese banquet restaurants was about 5 to 6 times lower.
Ray Chui, Chairman, Institution of Dining Art told the media that as far as he knows, the reasons for the decline in business during the Mid-Autumn Festival include some customers who have recently contracted COVID-19 had to cancel their reservations, and the elderly were afraid to go out and they cancelled family gatherings when there were many cases in the community. Since the business of the Mid-Autumn Festival this year was not as ideal, he expected that the business situation in the second half of the year would tend to be pessimistic. He also believes that when the vaccination rate in Hong Kong increases coupled with the rapid antigen test requirement for 8 diners per table, the authorities should consider relaxing the number of diners per table to 12 and the number of persons allowed to attend banquets. The maximum cap should also be relaxed from 120 to 240.