The variant virus Omicron has flowed into the community, and the government began to ban dine-in dinners again last week and closed many venues. Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said when attending a question-and-answer conference on Wednesday (12th) that tightening epidemic prevention measures is not aimed at the catering industry and related industries. But because the measures can significantly reduce the flow of people in a short period of time.
In the two years since the epidemic, businesses in all walks of life have experienced difficulties. How much has the actual business dropped?
Among them, some industries have rebounded to near the pre-epidemic level last year. How much will the re-restriction affect?
That is to see the business situation of the affected industries▼▼▼
The Business Receipt Index can compare the increase and decrease ratios of various industries at the same time. Starting from the fourth quarter of 2019, the business income indexes of various industries have begun to decline sharply, among which the tourism industry has experienced the largest decline.
The tourism revenue index in the fourth quarter of 2019 was 56.8, but it has remained in single digits for a year and a half since the second quarter of 2020.
The situation of other industries was better, most of which fell to the third quarter of 2020 and then began to rebound, reflecting the improvement of business, and the recovery of the catering industry was the most obvious.
Before the epidemic (the fourth quarter of 2019), the catering industry revenue index was 99.7, and it fell to only 65.4 in the third quarter of 2020, a drop of more than 30%.
After the period, it stopped falling and rebounded by 40%, and the index rose to 94.1 in the third quarter of 2021, close to the level before the epidemic.
At present, dine-in in the evening market is banned again. I believe that business will be greatly affected again, especially Chinese restaurants in the peak season of the Lunar New Year, as well as bars that are completely closed. Dine-in losses are expected to reach 9 billion yuan.
In the beauty industry, according to the "Quarterly Employment and Vacancies Statistics Report", the number of beauty and body service establishments in March of the previous year decreased by more than 150 compared with before the epidemic, and the number of employed persons decreased by about 2,000.
Ye Shixiong, the founding chairman of the Beauty Industry Federation, said on the radio program that the industry is not optimistic about the reopening before the Lunar New Year, and the estimated loss exceeds 3 billion yuan.
In terms of entertainment, cinemas, theme parks, party rooms and other entertainment venues are also closed at the same time.
The Hong Kong Party Venues Association said it expects business to drop by 70% compared to the past.
As for theaters, the box office of movies will drop by 70% in 2020, and will only recover by half in 2021, about 670 million yuan. The UA theater chain, which has been in operation for more than 30 years, closed its entire line in March last year.
In terms of actual amount, it is believed that the catering industry, which involves the most merchants, saw the largest decline in business, followed by the beauty industry and cinemas.
If the business is closed again for a long time until 2020, the revenue of entertainment venues such as party rooms and cinemas is expected to drop by 70%. Many trade unions hope that the government will provide support.
Various industries have been hit hard. The government will launch the fifth round of anti-epidemic funds to provide special support to the tourism industry, restaurants and closed venues. The restaurant industry has received a total of 9.72 billion yuan in subsidies so far. As for other closed venues, beauty parlors, massage parlors and parties The room received a total of 1.76 billion yuan.
In addition to hoping that the government will help to tide over the new year, some of the industry also hope to reopen their premises for business.
