Famed Jumbo Floating Restaurant fades into the sunset

HONG KONG • Jumbo Floating Restaurant, a famed but ageing Hong Kong tourist attraction that featured in many Cantonese and Hollywood films, was towed out of the city yesterday after years of revitalisation efforts went nowhere.

The buoyant behemoth, which at 76m long could house 2,300 diners, set out shortly before noon from the southern Hong Kong Island typhoon shelter where it has sat for nearly half a century.

Designed like a Chinese imperial palace and once considered a must-see landmark, the restaurant drew visitors from Queen Elizabeth II to actor Tom Cruise, and featured in several films - including Steven Soderbergh's Contagion, about a deadly global pandemic.

The lavish restaurant's operators cited the Covid-19 pandemic as the reason for finally closing its doors in March 2020, after around a decade of financial woes.

Restaurant owner Melco International Development announced last month that ahead of its licence expiration in June, Jumbo would leave the city and await a new operator at an undisclosed location.

Under overcast skies, a scattered group of onlookers gathered on the Aberdeen waterfront to see it being dragged away.

Watching the restaurant's ponderous progress across the shelter waters was Mr Wong, a 60-year-old man who told AFP he had come specially to see its departure.

"The exterior was for many years a symbol of Hong Kong," he said, adding that he had eaten there 20 years ago. "I believe it will come back and I look forward to it."

Opened in 1976 by the late casino tycoon Stanley Ho, Jumbo Floating Restaurant embodied the height of luxury, reportedly costing more than HK$30 million to build.

The restaurant was kept afloat by Hong Kong's booming tourism industry but its popularity had dimmed in recent years even before the coronavirus hit.

Restaurant operator Melco said last month that the business had not been profitable since 2013, and cumulative losses had exceeded HK$100 million (S$17.7 million).

It was still costing millions in maintenance fees every year and around a dozen businesses and organisations had declined an invitation to take it over at no charge, Melco added.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE