Face Off: Has Hong Kong’s tourism industry returned to normal?
- Each week, two of our readers debate a hot topic in a showdown that doesn’t necessarily reflect their personal viewpoints
- This week, they discuss whether the city’s travel industry has returned to its pre-Covid glory
Tourists take photos and admire the Hong Kong skyline at The Peak. Photo: Dickson LeeIf you are interested in joining future Face Off debates, fill out this form to submit your application.
For: Valerie Chiu, 13, St Mary’s Canossian College
Imagine riding on the Hair Raiser in Ocean Park or looking at the magnificent Victoria Harbour from The Peak. There are so many fun things to do in Hong Kong, which is why more than 160,000 people visited the “Fragrant Harbour” in December 2022. These figures show that tourism is on the upswing in Hong Kong.
Some might argue that tourism hasn’t really returned to normal since Hong Kong still requires pre-departure Covid-19 tests from most travellers, which could discourage visitors. However, it has already removed all vaccination and quarantine requirements. Tourists no longer need to quarantine in hotels or avoid bars and restaurants for their first few days in the city; they can go anywhere they please without showing a negative RAT test or scanning the Leave Home Safe app.
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It’s simply not possible for all restrictions to vanish in one go. It also doesn’t mean that the city has returned to the way it was before the coronavirus, or even that it has to: Hong Kong has accepted living under a “new normal”, and visitors will be able to see how the city has adapted to a new way of life.
Hong Kong has reopened its border with mainland China and dropped all visitor quotas. The mainland travellers who made up a majority of the city’s tourists can return – and they’ve already started.
The government is actively promoting tourism under its “Hello Hong Kong” campaign, and the city is gradually returning to its place as Asia’s world city. It even recently announced it would give away 500,000 free plane tickets so people from all over can visit, see the sights, and spend money in our shops and restaurants.
Furthermore, the commercial sector has been actively offering special incentives to tourists, such as shopping coupons. New attractions built during the pandemic, such as M+ and the Hong Kong Palace Museum, give tourists something new to do if they have already been to Hong Kong.
We have been waiting for tourists to return for nearly three years. Thanks to the city’s famous attractions, delicious food, shopping and tourist campaigns, the city’s tourism industry is finally back to normal.
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Against: Matthew Wong, 16, Shung Tak Catholic English College
Hong Kong has slowly come back to life since it ended most of its travel restrictions and opened the border with mainland China. However, we must not be hasty and conclude that the city has returned to normal.
Hong Kong’s tourism industry is indeed on the rebound, but to announce that it has returned to its past glory would undoubtedly be an overstatement.
The economic boost brought by tourism is still far below pre-pandemic levels. Visitor-related economic activities contributed to 3.6 per cent of the city’s gross domestic product (GDP) back in 2018. During the pandemic, however, the economic input from inbound arrivals stood at HK$3.89 billion in the third quarter of 2022, 95 per cent less than the HK$76.7 billion made during the first quarter of 2019, according to information obtained from the Census and Statistics Department.
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Hong Kong only received about 55,000 visitors from places other than mainland China in November 2022, shortly after dropping all its rules regarding hotel quarantine. This is less than one-tenth of the amount of tourists in November 2019, during the height of the protests. These figures show the spending boost from overseas visitors has yet to rise to previous heights, doing little to help the city’s commercial and service sectors, two tourism-related pillars of Hong Kong’s economy.
Hong Kong’s strict Covid-19 rules, which at one point, included a three-week hotel quarantine for overseas arrivals, also helped other cities in the region take our place as a tourist hub.
Just look at Singapore, Hong Kong’s most prominent competitor in all aspects. Singapore adopted a “coexisting with Covid” approach far before Hong Kong and clocked 1.5 million visitor arrivals in the first half of 2022, when travel was almost non-existent in our city.
These locations have shown they can be flexible and attract tourists, while Hong Kong has been slow to recover. It will certainly take some work to convince people to come to our city now that they know what other options are available.
Hong Kong is making progress and working to attract visitors. However, it is way too early to claim that our tourism industry has returned to normal. We aren’t getting the same economic boost we used to, and other cities have shown themselves to be formidable competitors for visitors.