A leading member of the city's catering sector on Sunday said that restaurants expect business to drop by at least 10 percent during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday compared to a year ago. Simon Wong, President of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades, believes sales would drop from HK$280 million to HK$250 million this year, saying many residents may opt to take time off and travel instead of staying in the SAR. "Many people are travelling, not even to GBA (Greater Bay Area) cities, but also to other cities on the mainland, and also travel to other Southeast Asian countries to spend their holiday," he said. "I also see that there are more residents in Hong Kong, they would not dine outside on the streets. The fact is that their spending habits have changed. Most families would stay in their homes and celebrate the festival with their family members and also friends. That is another blow to our business." Wong pointed out that the number of visitors heading to Hong Kong would not be able to compensate for the loss. This is because he foresees the number of residents leaving Hong Kong during the holiday to be two times more than that of incoming travellers, adding the spending power of tourists is 20 percent less than a year ago. For the first time, the Tourism Board will hold a drone show at the Wan Chai harbourfront to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival on Tuesday night. However, Wong doesn't believe it will do much to boost the sector's business, accept for places along the harbour where you can watch the display. "We see that [these kind of activities] would attract a lot of people to Tsim Sha Tsui and nearby areas. But the other areas would become... all the people are going there [the harbourfront], so the business has been hurting greatly." With the chief executive set to unveil his third Policy Address next month, Wong hopes the government could roll out more dynamic activities to lure tourists.
