The newly launched Brunch Weekend, an event running June 18-19 and 25-26 in Shanghai and Beijing, offers a good opportunity for those who love to dine out. (Photo provided to China Daily)
In the next decade, however, when the restaurant industry was stagnating in the wake of the 9/11 attack and then the global economic downturn, the idea went worldwide, spreading to 35 countries by different organizers.
In China, however, the incentive for both diners and restaurants to join the event took a rather different approach.
"It's more a social than culinary event for locals," Rooijmans tells China Daily before the kick-off of the newly launched Brunch Weekend, an event running June 18-19 and 25-26 in Shanghai and Beijing. He adds that Chinese love to dine out, and Restaurant Week offers a good opportunity.
The company, which also offers premium restaurant listings during the event, draws from its base of regular users who are 90 percent local and between the ages of 27 and 37, with 70 percent female. "In most cases, women decide where to eat," Rooijmans says with a grin.
The mix of expats and locals was about 50-50 back when Restaurant Week launched in China.
"We called it a 'Wagas or Element Fresh phenomenon'", says Rooijmans, meaning that when a Western-style restaurant opens, expats are the first wave of diners. But as the restaurant's popularity grows, the local population follows and keeps the business growing.
"The change of percentage is actually not because laowai stop coming, but because there are more local people joining," adds Schreurs, an Italian veteran of the Shanghai dining industry since 2006, working at places like Lounge 18 on the Bund and Le Royal Meridien before launching Dining City.
