Leong said: "Luckily, after the handover the police rounded up the bad guys. From that time, I started to develop my confectionery business."
After the handover, crime and public safety were handled by a new government department, the Secretariat for Security, and gangsters who had intimidated small food vendors were cleared from the streets.
With the opening of Macao International Airport in 1995 and the distribution of gaming concessions six years later, tourists not only from Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, but from across Asia, began flocking to Macao.
Leong attributes the growth of his business to tourists arriving after the Individual Visit Policy was launched in the summer of 2003. Since that year, his sales have risen tenfold. The new policy allows mainlanders to visit Macao and Hong Kong on an individual basis.
"A flood of tourists started to arrive in 2003. Our stocks often sold out and we basically had nothing left to sell, because there were too many customers buying our products."
Since then, infrastructure projects such as the Hong Kong-Macao-Zhuhai Bridge have given food lovers more opportunities to travel to Macao.
Leong said, "For example, nowadays if you say you're going to Macao, your friends will ask you to buy cookies, egg tarts, candies and other items. It's so convenient. Visitors come for just a few hours and can buy lots of confectionery."
Tourist spending in Macao stood at 15.2 billion patacas in the third quarter of this year, with retail sales contributing just over 45 percent of the total, according to the city's Statistics and Census Service. Food and souvenirs accounted for 33 percent of retail sales.
Local noodle shops and Cantonese restaurants have also benefited from the tourist influx.
Lei Man-lung, who owns Luk Kei Noodles, a restaurant known for its crab congee said, "After the handover, the central government pushed forward the Individual Visit Policy, which was good for Macao's economy." Since 1999, business at the restaurant has risen sixfold.
