But he said the boost in business was very localised and did not trickle down to other areas that were further away from the fireworks, stressing restaurants overall still did better than on Christmas Eve.

“We had about HK$350 million in revenue on Christmas Eve,” he said. “The figure is a result of a lot of Hongkongers spending their holidays across the border or going abroad over the Christmas period.

“They are now gradually coming back now that the holidays are over.”

Wong noted that Hongkongers preferring to head to mainland China also contributed to the drop in business on New Year’s Eve when compared with the year before.

The government on Tuesday said 227,000 tourists visited the city on New Year’s Eve, 195,888, or 87 per cent, of whom were from the mainland. About 26,000, or 13 per cent, of the mainland tourists went home overnight after they watched the fireworks display.

“For the whole food and drink industry, we had about HK$100 billion in sales revenue in 2023, compared with HK$90 billion in 2022 and HK$120 billion in 2018,” Wong said.

While a growing number of Hongkongers crossed the border to spend weekends or holidays in 2023, a trend that was less pronounced before the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of tourists visiting the city on New Year’s Eve did not return to 2018 and 2017 levels.

The number visiting the city on New Year’s Eve was 30 per cent lower than the figure recorded on the same day in 2018 and 12.2 per cent below 2017.

Hong Kong security chief to review packed border crossings after festive fireworks

Official statistics revealed that restaurant receipts in the first three quarters of 2023 stood at HK$82.08 billion, 33.8 per cent higher than HK$61.34 billion in the same period in 2022. But the figure is 8 per cent lower than the HK$89.21 billion logged in 2018 and slightly less than the HK$83.07 billion in 2017.

Silas Li, executive chef of upmarket Cantonese restaurant Hong Kong Cuisine 1983, called business over the New Year’s Eve weekend “OK”.

“I’m not super happy with it, to be honest. It’s very quiet lately,” Li said. “We had a lot of cancellations and it seems that a lot of people are not actually in Hong Kong and many are heading to the mainland.”

He attributed his business increasing by 25 per cent compared with the previous year to three big bookings he had at the restaurant.

“If we did not have those three tables, if you look at people walking in on average, it’s not as good as last year for sure,” Li said.

He noted that his business had now returned to about 40 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, adding he was not very sure about what would happen this year. He said he considered Hongkongers travelling to the mainland a passing trend and that high-end dining in the city would maintain its value.

William So Man-sing, general manager of a dim sum house called London Restaurant in Mong Kok, said business during the day rose by about 7 to 8 per cent on New Year’s Eve compared with last year, but evening meals remained the same.

The business has returned to 85 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, according to So.

420,000 set to watch New Year’s Eve fireworks at Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour

Lam Chi-chung, general secretary of the Hong Kong Department Store and Commercial Staff General Union, said that the surge of tourists did not result in retail sales over the past weekend.

“Shops and streets are a lot busier than they were, but shoppers are more prudent this year,” Lam said, adding that a comparison with last year would be unfair as Hong Kong was still battered by the pandemic. He argued that retail sales were not back to pre-pandemic levels yet.

Lam said retailers were at about 50 to 70 per cent of business when compared with the pre-pandemic peaks and hoped the government could work on activities that attract more tourists and locals to spend in Hong Kong.

Additional reporting by Connor Mycroft