Top Chinese restaurants serve Expo offers
- Source: Global Times
- [09:42 May 18 2010]
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By Chen Xiaoru
High-end Chinese restaurants struggling to attract diners at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai are looking at a range of promotions to draw in trade, including paying for their customer's Expo tickets.
Shaoxing Restaurant, a specialist in cuisine from Zhejiang Province, told the Global Times Tuesday that the company is providing Expo Park night tickets worth 90 yuan ($13), which are valid after 5 pm.
"We have had fewer customers than we anticipated, so we came up with the idea to good effect. We are almost booked to capacity for the whole of May, and we are considering adding more tables to meet demand," Ren Zuliang, the chief executive officer of the Shaoxing Res-taurant, said.
Ren said that to be eligible for the free Expo tickets, customers must make a booking of at least 3,888 yuan ($569) for a table catering for 10 people. Customers will then receive a free night ticket for each member of their party.
According to Ren, most of the bookings his restaurant receives are for wedding feasts or birthday parties. At 3,000 square meters, the restaurant is the largest inside the park, with 22 tables in its main hall.
The Shanghai Restaurants Association said that Chinese restaurants inside the park are struggling to attract diners.
"The daily number of visitors has been around 150,000, far short of the expected 400,000 per day. This has impacted on the number of people going to Chinese restaurants in the Expo Park," Jin Peihua, deputy director of the association, told the Global Times Tuesday.
Although the Expo authorities recently initiated a policy to cut the prices charged for food in the Expo Park, visitors still tend to bring their own food, according to a marketing employee surnamed Wu from Xiao Nan Guo catering company, which has two restaurants in the park. The company has been giving away traditional Chinese fans in a bid to attract customers.
However, many locals visiting the Expo Tuesday were not tempted by such offers, instead opting to seize the opportunity to sample cuisine from further afield.
A Shanghainese visitor surnamed Gu said that she planned to enjoy the foreign foods inside the park, as she could eat Chinese food any-where outside the park easily and for a cheaper price.
