'Eased Measures Good News For Catering Industry'

The catering industry has applauded the government's decision to lift most social gathering restrictions at restaurants and bars, saying it will help revive the embattled sector.

The president of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades, Simon Wong, said the announcement on Tuesday had immediately triggered a spike in bookings for the upcoming Father's Day celebration.

Wong said a number of restaurants were forced to shut because of Covid-19, and he cited Tuesday's jobless figures which found that unemployment in the catering industry has risen to 14.8 percent.

“I can also see that because of the relaxing of the social distancing measures, more people will come out to have dinner, lots of parties,” Wong said.

“I see that restaurants would hire more people for the next few months,” he said, adding that he expected the government's HK$10,000 cash handout for all Hong Kong residents will be partly spent locally, and will help the economy rebound.

However, Wong said it will take time for the industry to return to normal because travel restrictions have meant there are not enough people coming to Hong Kong.

“For the catering industry, about eight percent of our income, of our revenue is contributed by tourists and if we do not have the tourists coming to Hong Kong, the total turnover of our industry will decline by eight percent," he said.

But he told RTHK's Priscilla Ng that the drop in tourism could be offset by the number of locals spending their money in Hong Kong when they would normally be off travelling.

Wong's comments come after Health Secretary Sophia Chan defended the government's decision to keep a gathering ban in place, even though restrictions on weddings are lifted, and restaurants are allowed to resume normal operations.

Speaking on an RTHK programme on Wednesday, Chan said authorities only considered public health and nothing else when they made the decision to ease the limit on public gatherings from eight people to 50 from this Friday.

She added that establishment owners can be relied upon to enforce infection control measures, to make sure Covid-19 won't spread in their facilities.