The initiative, which will feature more than 200 restaurants, is going big on attractive discounts to entice diners to come back and dine out
Established just this April 2020, Save Hong Kong F&B is an alliance of more than 600 restaurants and bars representing over 10,000 employees, working together to find ways to support each other during these unprecedented times.
The group—which includes core members such as Alan Lo of Classified, May Chow of Little Bao and Happy Paradise, Charlene Dawes of Tastings Group and Agung Prabowo of The Old Man—unveiled the 2020 Wipeout campaign this week in the hopes that diners would be encouraged to return to their favourite restaurants. The e-voucher campaign features more than 200 restaurants—many of them household names—with options for purchasing varying tiers of cash vouchers, each with a notable discount.
See also: 8 Things You Can Do Right Now To Support Hong Kong's Restaurant Industry
“A lot of these people [in the industry] really work so hard, for the last 10-15 years, pouring their entire life savings into a project to finally own something. And then this wave comes and many will be left with nothing,” Lo tells us. “That’s one of the reasons why we wanted to do the voucher programme. Hopefully we can help everyone with cashflows.”
Lo points out that restaurant and bar sales revenues have dropped by 80% this year, compared to 50% in 2019 in the wake of social unrest. In addition, nearly 90% of the alliance’s participants do not believe that government assistance (in regards to proposed subsidies) is sufficient enough to keep them in business. While there is still so much to be done to address the issues that the F&B industry face—including notoriously unforgiving landlords and high operational costs—this is one more initiative in a growing, multi-pronged campaign to save our hospitality industry.
As Hong Kong moves closer to 28 days of zero local transmissions, it's encouraging to see more diners coming back out and supporting the restaurant industry—but the team understand that it's not possible to put all their hopes on diners who are already actively engaged in dining at their restaurants. The beauty of the 2020 Wipeout system is that supporters can pre-purchase their e-vouchers and use them at a later date, such as when they feel comfortable going out again, but the money can already go towards helping the restaurants with their immediate cashflow.
The vouchers can be purchased from the 2020 Wipeout website, and includes restaurants such as Bayfare Social, Chachawan, Little Bao Diner, Sake Central, Duddell’s, and La Cabane—with more to be added soon, including Yan Toh Heen.
Find out more at savehkfnb.ebercity.com