Vendors at this year’s Wine and Dine Festival have expressed confidence in business, with some expecting double-digit growth.

The event runs until Sunday at the Central Harbourfront with over 300 booths offering food and drink.

One of those reappearing at the festival is MyiCellar, which specialises in Kweizhou Zhenjiu.

Co-founder Tomy Wu said his company is eyeing a 30-to-50 percent increase in business amid the growing popularity of Chinese baijiu.

“More and more people know about baijiu, so we expect the revenue and sales to increase quite significantly, compared with last year,” Wu said.

“We expect, in the long run, sales to increase, because the lower tax rate is beneficial to those middle- to high-end products. Very likely, we will also use the tax cut to decrease the price of the products.”

For the first time, the festival features exhibition areas about the United Kingdom, Australia, Chile and Thailand.

Tracy Cheung, senior brand manager of Edrington Hong Kong, is optimistic about the company’s debut at the festival.

“We expect there will be quite a lot of customers interested in the products because this is the first time we have a ‘UK Pavilion’ at the Wine and Dine Festival, and it’s also our first time to participate in this big festival,” Cheung said.

“We are expecting roughly 1,000 to 2,000 cocktails per day.”

Unlike in the past, this year’s festival lasts for five days instead of four.

Zachary Chan, co-founder of Hong Kong Liquor Store which has joined the festival for about a decade, said the longer event will help.

“We should be able to do better sales than last year. This year, we got some new products we are promoting at our booth. We got whiskey and gin from different places. We’ll be doing a lot of cocktails. I think that’s one of the areas of growth is a lot of people are looking for cocktails. That’s one of the focuses we are doing this year,” Chan told RTHK.

“With the extra day and everything, we are hoping to do 15 percent more than we did last year overall.”

Forum Restaurant, which last took part in 2017, is expecting business to grow 30 to 40 percent.

Executive chef Adam Wong said the boost could come from people who choose to stay in Hong Kong to spend.