Food Truck Pilot Scheme to end in June next year
The Tourism Commission (TC) announced today (December 23) that the Food Truck Pilot Scheme will end on June 1, 2022, after a comprehensive evaluation by the Government of its effectiveness.
A TC spokesman said, "Positioned as a tourism promotion project, the two-year Scheme was launched on February 3, 2017. It aimed to add fun and vibrancy to Hong Kong's tourist attractions by providing diverse, creative and high quality food options to tourists and locals. Since the commencement of the Scheme, the Government has been providing various forms of support to the operation of the food trucks. It has implemented a number of refinement and helping measures, including the introduction of new operating venues and rental concessions. The Scheme has also been extended twice till February 2, 2022. However, the business development of food trucks serving as a tourism promotion facility was not satisfactory. Their business was only better in the first year after commencement of the operation, but deteriorated continuously in the subsequent two years and fell to its lowest level in the first half of last year due to the double blow of the social unrest in 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The Scheme has been running for almost five years and the operation mode of the food trucks as a tourism promotion project has been fully tested. Its development has not been able to achieve the policy objective of tourism promotion. The Government finally decides to end the Scheme, but will extend it for about four months till June 1, 2022, to allow the operators sufficient time to make their corresponding arrangements," the spokesman said.
Fifteen food trucks commenced operation when the Scheme was launched in 2017. Subsequently, some operators withdrew and new ones joined. Currently among the remaining 12 food trucks, only six have been maintaining relatively regular operations. As for the current 12 operating venues, only three have experienced relatively frequent food truck operations.