Hong Kong's Tourism Numbers Don't Add Up

This campaign focuses more on China tourists than N America

A friend from Hong Kong told me the hospitality sector is still struggling despite the city being fully open for tourists and the government pushing its "Hello Hong Kong" campaign.

Hotels are hurting the most, with low occupancy numbers, while high-end restaurants are trying to lure in diners with set menu deals.

And the Hong Kong government is wondering why the tourists aren't coming...

Chan wonders why tourists aren't coming to HK

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said the city needed to improve its tourism offerings even though it had 3.6 million visitors last month, up 30 percent from June.

On his blog, Chan wrote inbound tourism would continue to be the main drive of economic growth for the remainder of the year, along with private consumption. As a result, Hong Kong needed to improve its attractiveness to visitors.

"Many tourists, especially the young ones, come to Hong Kong mainly to attend exhibitions, cultural and artistic activities or major concerts," he wrote.

"This change in travel and consumption patterns means that we need to deliver what our tourists value: the features, creativity and quality of products and services, as well as the user experience."

It took Chan this long to figure this out?

Obviously neither he nor his fellow officials have learned anything from the Covid-19 pandemic, that people are seeking experiences over shopping and what does it have to offer that's new?

The mainland Chinese people who have visited Hong Kong are not interested in going there again, and so the only ones coming now are newbies.

Will more conferences lure people back to HK?

Their consumption spending power is much lower than previous visitors, and with China's high speed rail network, Chinese tourists don't have to stay overnight in Hong Kong -- they can zip across the border to Shenzhen for a cheaper hotel room before going back to Hong Kong again (if they so please).

But more importantly it's the implementation of the national security law, with headlines around the world reporting about the eight pro-democracy activists and former lawmakers with HK$1 million bounties over their heads, and the arrests of many others that has scared potential long-haul visitors from coming.

Another is the exorbitant prices for flights that have deterred many from coming back too.

However, former financial services secretary Chan Ka-keung tries to put the blame on other factors.

"A lot of people still -- because of the slow economic activities -- are not traveling much. It's not just Hong Kong not receiving tourists, many countries in Asia aren't receiving tourists either," he told reporters.

Has he seen Japan and Taiwan overwhelmed with visitors?

"But Hong Kong of course has another problem, which is because of the propaganda from the western media, a lot of people don't understand Hong Kong," Chan continues. "We should host more exhibitions and conferences, get more people to come to Hong Kong to see for themselves."

Perhaps if the city's government wasn't so repressive and arresting so many people then maybe more potential visitors would feel comfortable to travel there? The Hong Kong Police recently boasted it has collected over 380,000 tips from its reporting hotline.

For Chinese visitors, it's a stark reminder of home, not a respite.