Zeman: ‘sad, quiet’ holiday leaves industry on brink

The chairman of the Lan Kwai Fong group, Allan Zeman, said on Friday that the restaurant trade saw a ‘sad and quiet’ Lunar New Year, with business between 20 and 25 percent of the usual level.

The government last month banned evening dine-in services, limited the maximum number of diners at a table to six and ordered businesses including bars, gyms and cinemas to close to fight a fifth wave of Covid-19 infections. That led many people to gather at home or reduce family visits during the three-day holiday.

Speaking on RTHK’s Hong Kong Today programme, Zeman said the industry was in a dire situation after missing out on what is usually one of the busiest trading periods of the year.

“You know, it’s become very, very dire for the whole industry, including bars, clubs, restaurants, gyms,” he told RTHK’s Ben Tse. “If subsidies are not forthcoming quickly there will be a huge amount of bankruptcies.”

Zeman said the government’s vaccine bubble system had worked well for bars and clubs before, and a plan to extend it to most premises would be a way of getting back to some kind of life. Officials have said they will make it mandatory for people to have at least one jab to enter most premises from February 24.

“At the moment, I know the so-called health experts, everyone has a different opinion of what to do,” Zeman added. “I’ve heard many different things.

“But I think we need to balance that with maybe three or four business experts as well, who can balance between the health and the way forward, because otherwise Hong Kong itself will die. It will not exist.”