West Kowloon Arts Hub is Deep in the Red

Fung says the WKCDA is HK$1 billion in the hole -- again

Hong Kong's West Kowloon arts hub that includes M+ and the Palace Museum can't make money. In fact it's in the red by HK$1 billion, similar to last year.

CEO of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority Betty Fung also said the number of visitors to the district was lower than expected, and so revenue from ticket sales and museum merchandise fell 20 percent year-on-year.

The Sanxingdui show garnered lots of attention

How is this possible when M+ recently presented a well-received exhibition on late Chinese-American architect IM Pei and well-known Hong Kong-based designer Henry Steiner?

Likewise the Palace Museum had the Sanxingdui show and paintings from the National Gallery London.

While the MTR does go to West Kowloon (called Kowloon station), getting to M+ and the Palace Museum isn't really convenient.

But there's also restaurants in M+, in particular Mosu, the Michelin-starred restaurant helmed by Korean superstar chef Sung Anh who became famous as a judge in Culinary Class Wars. Because he had closed his restaurant in Seoul, he was pretty much focused on his Hong Kong branch, which drew a lot of fans to his restaurant.

However, Fung says the catering businesses at the West Kowloon district didn't bring in a lot of revenue either.

Chef Sung's profile drove fans to eat at Mosu

Is this a case of bureaucrats not having a clue how to run businesses? Or too many people involved and not making bold or innovative decisions?

The fact that the district is HK$1 billion in the hole like last year is very troubling. For years there were complaints that Hong Kong was a cultural desert, and now that this area has been developed and opened there's no interest in it!

Disappointing and frightening to see taxpayer dollars frittered away...

Picture of the Day: Hong Kong's Garbled Message

How much of this can you read in a few seconds?

The Vancouver International Film Festival began yesterday and sitting in the theatre waiting for my first film to start, there was a slide show of ads, and one of them was from the Hong Kong government.

As this slide was only shown for a few seconds, one had to take a picture of it to really read and understand what's going on.

What caught our attention was the tagline on the right: 

HK: Raise capital. Raise a family. Raise your heartbeat.

Hong Kong. A world of opportunities.

"Raise capital" refers to Hong Kong being a financial hub, we all get that. But "Raise a family" seems odd as the next sentence, though perhaps a subtle hint that the city's birthrate is plunging, where in 2023, a woman in Hong Kong gave birth to 0.75 children during her childbearing years.

What does "Raise your heartbeat" mean? Blood pressure from stress comes to mind... 

The words are set against some images promoting the arts, like a rock concert, Chinese opera and an art installation. What does that have to do with the tagline?

It is only when we read the words on the left do we see it is referring to the West Kowloon Cultural District or "WestK" as it's known these days.

"Sitting on more than 40 hectares of harbourfront land, the West Kowloon Cultural District is one of the world's largest preserves of art, culture and entertainment, positioning Hong Kong as the premier arts and cultural hub of Asia," it reads.

"Already it boasts breathtaking architecture: the Xiqu Centre, home of year-round Chinese opera; the iconic M+, the first global museum of contemporary visual culture in Asia; and the Hong Kong Palace Museum, which houses treasures from Beijing's Forbidden City. 

"With bike-friendly promenades, pet-friendly parks and indoor and outdoor performance venues, this exhilarating swirl of art, culture, lifestyle and nature adds a new dimension to the allure of Hong Kong as one of the most liveable, connected, family-friendly cities on earth."

Then there's the Toronto phone number for the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, and a QR code!

But really, this slide flashed on the screen for only a few seconds, once every five minutes or so. Hardly any of the viewers would have been able to read any of the text on the left column. And on closer examination, there are so many things going that it's quite confusing.

Perhaps a dramatic photo of Bruce Lee in Hong Kong would have gotten people's attention?

Mainland Tourists Flooding Back to HK

Tourists visit West Kowloon, but not M+ and Palace Museum

Back in 2013 there were a growing chorus of complaints from Hongkongers when the city was flooded with mainland tourists dining in residential areas like Hung Hom and Tokwawan, tour buses clogging the streets and pharmacies had to limit the amount of milk powder they sold to each customer.

Ten years later it's deja-vu with the mainland visitors back and doing the same things. Many are retirees who haven't been to Hong Kong before and want to see what's so great about this former British colony.

Why are tourists eating rice boxes on the street

Perhaps what's most shocking is how cheap their tour packages are.

When interviewed by a reporter, one said their trip was HK$3,288 including accommodation for two days in Hong Kong, a day trip to Macau, and a day each in Shenzhen and Guangzhou..

Another said their tour cost HK$1,888 for a five-day trip, including accommodation for two days in Hong Kong, two in Macau, and tickets to Ocean Park.

For a seven-day trip with two days each in Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai, the package costs HK$2,588 each.

You can eat a dinner in a Michelin-starred restaurant in Hong Kong for that cost!

Many of these tours stop in restaurants in Hung Hom and Tokwawan for lunch. There were complaints by residents that some tourists standing as they ate rice boxes on the street, cigarette butts were all over the sidewalks, and tour buses caused traffic jams.

How is having tourists eating rice boxes on the street hospitable? Yes it cuts costs, but how does that give a decent impression of the city? It's downright deplorable. There's cheap and then there's unsightly.

A photo with the Golden Bauhinia is a must

Meanwhile other residents were relieved to finally see tourists coming to the city to inject some money into the economy.

Nevertheless because these tour packages are so cheap, it's no wonder they didn't have tickets to go to M+ and the Palace Museum, two new landmarks within a stone's throw of each other on West Kowloon that opened up during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Perhaps these tourists are not the kind of visitors these museums would appreciate? Funny, as they are both government run... one would have thought they would warmly welcome these mainlanders in to see real quality art?

The bottom line is -- are these the kinds of tourists Hong Kong wants to have? Are they really going to jump-start the tourism sector?