Increased Retail Price at Restaurants in Tourist District during Statutory Holidays, No Objections from Diners


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Central district was flooded with tourists during Ching Ming Festival


Source: Macao Daily News

Wednesday, 5th April, 2017


Increased Retail Price at Restaurants in Tourist District during Statutory Holidays, No Objections from Diners


Yesterday was Ching Ming Festival, residential areas were deserted than usual. If employees are required to work during statutory holidays, owners need to pay extra salaries as compensation. In order to reduce additional labour cost, majority of restaurants were closed during holidays. Only a few were open as usual. Fast food chains and restaurants which has normal operation generally had good turnover. As tourist districts are always flooded with tourists, most restaurants decided to open for business. In order to balance the extra labour cost, most restaurants raised in retail price from 15% to 30%. A restaurant owner indicated income and expenditure just "broke even" with increased in retail price and traffic based on past experience. A restaurant owner stated that increased retail price on statutory public holidays is a trend, and this is acceptable among the general public and tourists.

 

The consecutive holidays of Ching Ming Festival of China ended yesterday. Ruins of St. Paul’s was flooded with tourist. Ms. Leung, the owner of a Portuguese restaurant in the tourist district indicated that the human traffic increased these few days by 20% more than weekdays. The amount of turnover may just slightly increased within 10% when compared with normal weekends.  The per capita consumption was a bit more than MOP$100. The income and expenditure just "broke even" for the extra labour cost during statutory holidays even there is an increase in retail price by 20%. Tourists will have nothing to eat if every restaurants are closed. This will be a damage of being a tourism city. Most tourists found it acceptable for the increases in retail price.

 

That store is a small business, and the owner need to discuss with employees before opening on statutory holidays. If there is sufficient manpower, then it is business as usual. Locals usually choose to take a day off while foreign workers are more willing to work. Because the competition in the neighborhood has been increasing in the past few months, there has been a drop of business by nearly 20%. As the restaurant is located upstairs, they need to have different advertising tactics such as flyers, beverage coupons with purchases and advertising in China and local gourmet online platform.

 

Mr. Lee, the owner of family owned restaurant, indicated that business over the Ching Ming Festival were worse than last year and human traffic is lower than expected. The turnover during lunch hour was not good. The restaurant would not open for business if he was just an employee. The store is located in the Old District with the target consumers of residents living in the neighborhood who all seems to found the increase in price during statutory holidays is acceptable measure.

 

Ms Lam, a catering practitioner, the restaurant she worked is open year round and target customer is local residents. There were some tourists during lunch hours. Business during the Ching Ming Festivals was very good and probably over 20-30% more than weekdays. The restaurant increased retail prices by 15% yesterday. She indicated that increasing retail prices over public holidays is something that customers are used to and there is not much disagreement. 






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