Party’s over (2)

Dinner is canceled

It used to be hard to book dinners at high-end restaurants during the period between January 1 and the Spring Festival, the peak season for business and government banquets. But many of the popular restaurants for these events have recently experienced cancellations of orders from government departments and State-owned enterprises (SOEs) for their year-end parties and meetings.

"One-third of our consumers are government departments and SOEs, and almost all of them have canceled their annual parties and banquets for their clients, causing a huge loss," Xiao Difan, marketing director at Minyoun Suniya Hotel, a five-star hotel in Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan Province, told the Global Times on Monday.

Xiao said his hotel will change its focus and try to attract more clients from foreign firms and private firms instead.

"Our resort has seen a large decline of orders before the Spring Festival, due to the new leadership's call," said Li Ru, a saleswoman at Hot Spring Leisure City, a popular resort for annual parties in Beijing's Changping district.

The number of government banquets in Tianjin has declined by about 30 percent and the average spending for each banquet has halved from one year earlier since the central government launched its anti-extravagance campaign, Xing Ji, president of the Tianjin Food Industry Association, was quoted by People's Daily as saying Monday.

Some private enterprises have also been cutting back, the head of Chongqing's catering chamber of commerce told People's Daily Monday.

The affected restaurants are mostly high-end and middle-end ones, Tian Guangli, an expert at Beijing-based consultancy Longce Think Tank, told the Global Times.