Retail landlords have increased their marketing budgets and pinned their hopes on cartoon characters to get more shoppers into their malls in the expectation that consumer spending is set to rise.
Shopping mall MegaBox in Kowloon Bay will spend close to HK$10 million on marketing this summer - up 10 per cent from a year ago; and Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP) has its eye on luring young lovers to get married in its cartoon playground at Sha Tin's New Town Plaza.
SHKP, which is targeting the vast young couples' market in Hong Kong and the mainland, has renovated its Snoopy's World themed playground to provide an alternative venue for weddings.
'We're going to provide young people who don't want to have a very formal wedding with an alternative. Such an option will be popular among mainland couples too,' said Henry Lam Ka-keung, general manager of leasing at Sun Hung Kai Real Estate Agency.
Couples can book the wedding venue online and it will be made available free of charge. But they will need to pay HK$2,800 for related services such as air-conditioning, lighting and staff. Lam said the new service is one of the summer promotions SHKP has launched and it is expected to help boost mall customer traffic and sales revenues by 10 per cent and 12 per cent respectively.
The developer has teamed up with the Shenzhen Municipal Women's Federation to arrange for mainlanders to cross the border and take wedding photos in Hong Kong. It has also lined up some restaurants at the mall to offer daytime wedding banquets at prices ranging from HK$1,500 to HK$3,000 for a table of 12 people - or about half the prices they charge for evening banquets.