Hong Kong gripped by 2018 World Cup fever as start of tournament brings fans flooding into city’s bars and restaurants
From entertainment areas to shopping centres, businesses are expecting a bump in profits from month-long Fifa extravaganza in Russia
Hong Kong was gripped by World Cup fever on Thursday as fans poured into restaurants, pubs and shopping centres for the start of the 2018 tournament in Russia.
Businesses in entertainment areas such as Lan Kwai Fong, Wan Chai, and Tsim Sha Tsui, along with the city’s major shopping malls have prepared for the month-long festival of soccer, displaying the national flags of the 32 countries taking part, and LED screens as tall as double-decker buses erected for the occasion.
With the Fifa tournament generating hundreds of millions of dollars globally, everyone from bar owners to property developers have spent time and money hoping to attract a slice of that enormous pie.
Developer Sino Group spent HK$30 million (US$3.8 million) setting up its seven shopping malls, while rival Sun Hung Kai Properties pumped HK$9.8 million into its round-the-clock shopping centre, APM, in Kwun Tong.
APM, and Sino Land’s Olympian City mall, have installed a 460-inch and 450-inch LED monitors respectively, for live matches.