A SNOOPY theme restaurant is expected to open in Hong Kong by early next year to satisfy the SAR's appetite for the Peanuts character.
Hong Kong-based RM Enterprises, the licensing agent in Asia for United Media, which owns the rights to Peanuts, has invited the managers of Singapore's Snoopy Place restaurant to open a franchise in Hong Kong.
'Snoopy is well received and has a big following in Hong Kong,' said Roger Yong, the franchise manager of Snoopy Place.
'I have met Hong Kong tourists who come to the restaurant. Some even have Snoopy Place in the itinerary of their Singapore visit.' In 1998, tens of thousands of Hong Kong people queued at McDonald's restaurants to buy 15cm plastic Snoopy figures dressed in different costumes from the comic strip.
The death earlier this month of Peanuts' creator, Charles Schulz, could also boost the interest in Snoopy products.
Mr Yong said sales of Snoopy merchandise at the restaurant gift-shop had risen since Schulz' death.