日韩精品久久一区二区三区_亚洲色图p_亚洲综合在线最大成人_国产中出在线观看_日韩免费_亚洲综合在线一区

Catering to a food heaven

Battered by stiff competition, soaring costs and an acute labor crunch, Hong Kong's eateries are struggling to stay afloat and uphold the city's image as a gourmets' paradise. Luo Weiteng reports from Hong Kong.

By Luo Weiteng | HK EDITION | Updated: 2024-10-21 10:07
Share
Share - WeChat
Customers wait in line at a dim sum restaurant in Mong Kok, Hong Kong, on Dec 29, 2022 after the city lifted most social distancing restrictions, including requiring dine-in customers to provide COVID-19 vaccination records. (EDMOND TANG/CHINA DAILY)

Riding the wave of change

For a highly competitive and saturated sector like catering, Yeung believes the industry's plight should not be looked at in isolation, with the philosophy of "survival of the fittest" and the attitude of "letting it go". In the past few years, he has seen a good many catering workers starting their own businesses to cash in on the rent cuts. Due to the relatively low bar for starting from scratch, catering outlets take up a sizeable portion of tenancies at shopping malls, especially in tough times, when retail is in retreat, he says.

"In the push to rejuvenate the catering business, could we introduce new elements for visitors, particularly those from the mainland who have been an integral part of the country's rapid development and meteoric rise over the past decades?" asks Wan.

Citing the now-demolished Kowloon Walled City which was featured recently in a blockbuster film, he says what makes Hong Kong's tourism-related sectors stand out are the flagship events and iconic landmarks embedded in the city's heritage.

Pascal Siu Yat-kui, a senior researcher with think tank, Our Hong Kong Foundation, believes it's essentially a matter of choice, not only in winning back tourists, but locking in local consumers, as patrons could hardly be expected to pay through the nose for mediocre food and substandard services like before, with a wealth of spending choices available and accessible north of the border.

Amid talk of "consumption downgrading" aggravating the catering sector's woes, Siu thinks it is more appropriate to call it "consumers going after value-for-money products and services" as a normal response to global economic uncertainties.

As the mainland and the SAR deepen economic and social links, he notes that the "new normal" of Hong Kong people heading north, which may fall into the narrative of "consumption downgrading", has become a secular trend rather than a fleeting phenomenon or passing fad purely out of novelty.

The concept of a "one-hour living circle" in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has timed its takeoff with the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link and six road-based land checkpoints between Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Other mega projects, including the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link that opened in June and the new Huanggang Port Area, due for completion in 2026 with a "co-location" arrangement for commuters, will accelerate connectivity, says Siu.

"Such a new normal is the hard reality every business in Hong Kong has to live with and adapt to," Yeung says.

At the height of cross-border travel, up to 800,000 Hong Kong residents made daily trips to nearby mainland cities on weekends. However, with commuter flow having stabilized to an expected level of 600,000, he is calling for concerted efforts by industry and government agencies to help local businesses ride the winds of change.

Siu says technology and marketing have a role to play, highlighting unmanned technologies like QR code ordering, self-checkouts and delivery robots, in improving operational efficiency, streamlining the business process, and better alignment of catering offers to meet customer needs. In his view, it is equally important to have well-planned marketing strategies via pop-up stores, social media and travel platforms, such as Xiaohongshu and Tripadvisor.

Restaurateurs like Yeung are diversifying into emerging business modes. Although takeaway services may not ideally suit Chinese restaurants, he has seen them giving local catering a leg up to survive and thrive.

Depending on the type of catering, takeaway services could contribute to no more than 10 percent of Chinese restaurants' revenues, compared with about 50 percent for others, according to Yeung.

Yeung is banking on more targeted, government-led promotions to attract untapped sources of visitors from inland and remote provinces on the mainland despite the launch of the individual travel program more than two decades ago. Hong Kong's catering operators should also set their sights on the potentially huge opportunities in Southeast Asia, he suggests.

Wan maintains a positive outlook on the SAR's catering business, saying it requires patience. "It does take some time, about two to three years, for consumers to regain some, if not all, of their pre-pandemic practices and dine out," he says.

"Every industry has its cycle of ups and downs, rise and fall. It is safer to say our catering business is seeing a much more cyclical fashion than a long-term downward trajectory."

|<< Previous 1 2 3   
Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
主站蜘蛛池模板: 欧美激情免费 | 久碰香蕉精品视频在线观看 | 久久精品视频5 | 美腿丝袜亚洲综合 | 亚洲v日本v欧美v综合v | 日韩欧美亚洲 | 欧美三级视频 | 久久亚洲第一 | 色综合久久亚洲国产日韩 | 欧美福利在线 | av88av·com | 国产香港一级毛片在线看 | 国产高清在线精品一区免费97 | 成年网站在线观看 | 国产午夜免费视频片夜色 | 羞羞电影在线观看 | 国产成人精品在线观看 | 久久综合九色综合欧美狠狠 | 舒淇三级浴室洗澡在线观看 | 中文字幕精品一区 | 在线观看日本中文字幕 | 欧美黄色一区 | 免费久久99精品国产婷婷六月 | 本道综合精品 | 久久se精品一区二区国产 | 日韩精品免费观看 | videos 欧美 | 国产精品美女www爽爽爽视频 | 日韩精品亚洲一级在线观看 | 久久精品久久精品 | 亚洲欧美日韩在线中文一 | 在线观看国产免费高清不卡 | 久久99精品久久久久久综合 | 日韩一区二区三区在线 | 日韩成人在线观看 | 国产一级免费视频 | 艹艹艹逼 | 奇米在线观看视频 | 欧美一区二区三区在线观看免费 | 香蕉久久一区二区不卡无毒影院 | 亚洲精品AV无码永久无码 |