The Hong Kong Food Festival kicked off at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai on Wednesday, with mixed feelings on business sentiment among vendors. The event runs until Sunday with over 1,000 booths offering a variety of food and drinks, including wine, bakery goods, local snacks to New Year delicacies. Lin Heung Lau, a famous Chinese restaurant located in Central, is one of the vendors. They put up neon signs at their booth and decorated it with their signature menu paper for dim sum. “The restaurant re-opened on April the 1st and we hope to use this chance to promote our business at the food festival. This is our first time participating, and we’re trying to bring dim sum and yum cha culture to the exhibition,” its representative said. One vendor from Taiwan said she wants to promote its handmade ginger and brown sugar tea to the locals, and that sales were looking good on the first day. She said her brand has been kept away from Hong Kong exhibitions for years because of the pandemic. But another vendor said people appeared to be spending less compared to previous years and that most big spenders were locals. A senior couple said they spent HK$3,000 on everyday items, such as canned food, alcohol and rice. The products are a little bit cheaper than outside, but the main thing is to experience the atmosphere and to support the local economy, they said. Entry tickets for the exhibition are priced at HK$30 each. Children aged 3 or below, seniors aged 65 or above, as well as non-local tourists can enjoy free admission.
