 |
Hong Kong Residents World's Top Diners
Good food and a lot of places to get it made people living in Hong Kong the most likely in the world to head out to eat, according to a global survey released on Thursday.
Russians, at the other end of the spectrum, were most likely to skip the meal out and curl up at home with a movie, according to the Roper Reports Worldwide 2001 Global Consumer Study.
Residents of Hong Kong had an average of 8.7 sit-down meals out a month, which is more a reflection of the region's restaurants than of wealth, the survey said.
"There are all kinds of low-cost and high-quality restaurants in Hong Kong. Chinese cuisine is one of the most sophisticated cuisines in the world and there is a long tradition of indulging in good food," said Tom Miller, a senior vice president who directed the survey.
Miller said a wide variety of quality restaurants and eateries push up the numbers of locals dining out. Disposable income does influence the number of diners, but a food culture and infrastructure are the main factors, he added.
Mexicans were second on the list for dining out, with an average of 7.2 visits a month, followed by Venezuelans and Thais at 4.6 visits, and Malaysians, South Koreans and Americans at 4.5 visits.
The global average is 3.1 times a month, it said.
Some nations that were below average were Japan at 2.7 times a month, Italy at 2.6, Taiwan at 2.4, Germany at 2.3, France and Brazil at 2.2, and Britain at 1.8, it said.
Russians were at the bottom, with an average of 0.3 restaurant meals a month, and Indonesians next to last at 1.1 visits, the survey said.
Japan and South Korea, known as being countries where consumers buy the newest home entertainment gadgets, were at the bottom of watching movies at home, with Koreans averaging 2.7 movie a month and Japanese at 2.8 a month, it said.
Russians, on the other hand, watched on average 21.1 movies a month, which was well ahead of the number two nation Hungary at 15.1 a month and number three Malaysia at 13.4 a month.
The survey was conducted between November and February and was based on 30,000 face-to-face interviews with about 1,000 consumers, age 13 to 65, being interviewed in each of 32 countries. The countries were in North America, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
The sampling error was plus or minus 4 points for each country.
In This Section
|