Hong Kong shopping centres enjoy boost in footfall with Olympic tie-in events, promos

Henderson Land Development executive director Augustine Wong Ho-ming said in an interview that the dozens of shopping malls under the company’s portfolio recorded better-than-expected footfall over the past fortnight.

“Looking back at the last two weeks, we saw our foot traffic go up by around 20 per cent [from a week before],” he said. “Originally, we were expecting an increase of just about 15 per cent, but perhaps the Games coinciding with the summer holiday pushed things further.”

The uptick comes at a time when the retail sector is contending with Hongkongers heading across the border for cheaper goods and services in cities such as Shenzhen.

Wong said that shopping centres with large open areas or atriums were better suited to hosting Olympic viewing parties and events, with such venues being the main beneficiaries amid the Games as smaller sites faced space limitations and the possibility of creating noise disturbances.

But he added that the time difference between Paris and Hong Kong had inevitably put a slight damper on the malls’ performance compared with the Tokyo Games.