More than 1,700 Hong Kong restaurants to cut prices to boost business around National Day holiday

About 1,750 city dining spots will knock 30 per cent off their menus or offer specific discounts on food items on October 1.

But some said they would run the discounts from September 28 to October 2 and one industry figure said some price cuts, particularly on October 2, were designed to increase dine-in custom at night, in line with a government plan.

“We have encouraged restaurants to consider offering discounts in the evening, in addition to morning and afternoon slots,” Tommy Cheung Yu-yan, a lawmaker representing the food and drinks industry, said.

“We are definitely supporting the government’s drive on the night economy.”

He added he hoped the discounts could entice Hongkongers to go out on the town at home and spend over the long weekend, rather than travel.

The industry-wide discount announcement followed a similar campaign in July to celebrate the 26th anniversary of the city’s return to Chinese rule, when close to 1,400 restaurants took part.

Maxim’s Hong Kong will offer a range of discounts in its bakeries and fast food chains, with 30 per cent off Hainanese chicken rice and HK$10.10 (US$1.29) off when buying two or more mango custard tarts.

Fast food giant McDonald’s will offer two sweetcorn pies for HK$11.

There will be a 30 per cent cut on designated drinks at the Pacific Coffee chain and Chinese restaurant group Fulum group has a discounted Peking duck dinner set for HK$621 for four to six people.

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Ray Chui Man-wai, president of catering group the Institute of Dining Art and whose Kam Kee restaurants have signed up for the campaign, said the series of events was good news for a sector hard-hit by the coronavirus and changed consumer habits.

He predicted that business this year could see an increase of about 10 per cent to 20 per cent as a result of the promotions.

Chui predicted the event would get a boost through Hongkongers’ familiarity with the earlier discounts, it being the first National Day weekend after the border with the mainland reopened and the Mid-Autumn Festival on Friday. .

But he warned that the food and drinks industry’s recovery from pandemic restrictions was disappointing.

“In fact, business has been worse than expected. We had hoped for business to return to the levels of 2018, but we are only at about 80 per cent right now,” Chui said.

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He added more had to be done to attract more tourists to Hong Kong, boost the workforce in the industry and improve the general economic situation of the city.

Simon Wong Kit-lung, chairman of the Quality Tourism Services Association, said it was difficult to estimate whether business would improve compared with the same period last year.

“Some [vendors] said they might make more money, but some said they might actually lose money because of the discounts,” Wong revealed.

He added that the industry wanted to create an atmosphere to boost dining out generally, not just for the National Day celebrations.