Hongkongers flocked to restaurants, bars and other entertainment venues to celebrate the festive season on Christmas Eve, but spending is not expected to hit levels businesses enjoyed before the Covid-19 pandemic erupted.

Some owners pinned their pessimism on the lack of tourists, locals heading overseas for long-delayed vacations and the wider economic downturn.

Crowds began to build in the afternoon in main shopping areas such as Causeway Bay and Tsim Sha Tsui, with residents hoping to buy last-minute gifts or meet up with family and friends.

Simon Wong Ka-wo, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades, on Saturday said the catering industry was expected to rake in a total of HK$1.3 billion (US$166.5 million) – about HK$320 million a day – over the holiday period from Friday to Monday, 20 per cent down on pre-Covid-19 levels when earnings hit HK$420 million a day.

“Western restaurants and bars will become the biggest winners this festive season, with many of them having strong bookings, while Chinese restaurants have received less than satisfactory bookings at about 70 per cent,” he said.

Wong explained that, despite further easing of coronavirus curbs on Thursday, the catering industry would not register a particularly strong showing for the holiday for several reasons, such as the outflow of residents travelling overseas and the battered economy which had caused many people to tighten their purse strings.

“There is a gap in our expectations,” he said.

The 85 per cent capacity limit for entertainment venues such as cinemas, museums, theme parks and performance venues has been scrapped. Bar customers and banquet guests are also no longer required to undergo rapid antigen tests (RAT) and the 240-guest limit for banquets has been abolished.

But the government has not lifted the cap on the number of customers per table at bars and restaurants. Only 12 people can be seated at a table in restaurants and the limit for bars is six.

Business magnate Allan Zeman, the chairman of the Lan Kwai Fong Group, said bookings in the nightlife district were very good this year.

“I can tell you the business and the bookings are very strong this year in Lan Kwai Fong even though a lot of Hong Kong people are away for the holiday,” he said, adding that some restaurants and bars had achieved records that beat pre-pandemic levels.

“Without the capping and other restrictions, people are now really, truly saying ‘Hong Kong is back’,” Zeman said.

The JJ Live restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui was 80 per cent booked for the Christmas holiday, according to owner Joe Chan. Business had not been affected by the recent jump in daily infections past the 20,000 mark, he added.

“We have quite good bookings. Last night we had a full house and we expect that this will be the same tonight,” he said.

But a spokeswoman for Lili Hotpot in Cheung Sha Wan said it did not get a single booking for Christmas Eve, a far cry from its pre-pandemic business boom around this time of year.

“In the past before the pandemic, we always had a full house every Christmas Eve, but this year we don’t have a single booking, maybe due to many locals leaving Hong Kong for vacation,” she said.

Wing Yeung, founder of Glassbelly Tea Lab in Causeway Bay, was also pessimistic over the level of Christmas holiday traffic.

“We don’t have many bookings and our business has just dwindled to 30 per cent of pre-pandemic levels,” she said. “There have been no signs of any rebound. People may have gone travelling overseas after the travel restrictions were removed.”

Hongkongers are also expected to flock to the movies on Saturday after cinemas were allowed to resume operating at full capacity.

Crucindo Hung Cho-sing, chairman of the Hong Kong Motion Picture Industry Association, predicted cinemas would sell 80 per cent of their tickets.

“This Christmas holiday, all eyes are on the run of Avatar: The Way of Water across all cinemas in Hong Kong,” he said. “We expect that movie fans will flock to see films this year as they have been starved of good ones for a long time.”

At Hysan Place in Causeway Bay, insurance agent Fanny Wong, 37, said she had spent HK$4,000 on clothes and shoes for her daughter Jessica, 15, and son Tommy, 14.

“We are planning to return to my hometown in Fujian during the New Year in January,” she said. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have done any shopping. I didn’t buy anything in the past two years.”

She said she felt Christmas this year was “a lot more” festive than in the previous two years.

“But it seems everything has become more expensive this year. Almost no shop offers Christmas promotional discounts,” Wong said.

University researcher Caitlin Wan, 25, and office clerk Rosanna Chan, 23, said they had spent about $500 on Christmas accessories for their friends and pets.

“The Christmas vibes seem slightly better to previous years, which might be due to the relaxed Covid-19 regulations,” Wan said.