Time to showcase the real Hong Kong to draw tourists back

As the success of other destinations shows, Hong Kong does not need to reinvent the wheel to attract mainland and foreign visitors
The combined efforts of Cathay Pacific and the MTR Corporation can help promote the city’s unique local character

Vijay Verghese

Published: 9:30am, 17 Jan 2024

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With the “Hello Hong Kong” campaign failing to lift off and tourism numbers sagging, the search is continuing for answers. Blaming the Covid-19 pandemic has been a regular feature of this exercise, but it does not explain why cities such as Bangkok, Tokyo and Macau – all emerging from their own pandemic woes – are packed with visitors.

Copying the approach of other destinations would be like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, but that is a common bureaucratic response when ideas are scarce. Every place has its own unique character, and this is what excites visitors. No one visits Japan expecting sumo wrestlers to perform Swan Lake, entertaining as that would be.

Hong Kong still retains key attributes that drove inbound visitor numbers to 65 million in 2018, so why the plunge? The unrest of the intervening years certainly animated some people and depressed others, but visitors to the city have always enjoyed its unique mix of Western cosmopolitanism and Cantonese tradition with unrivalled street spectacle. Canned celebrity ads simply do not get this message across.

It is not a matter of budgets but imagination. The tiny Faroe Islands’ engaging SheepView360 solar-powered cameras led to a rise in tourism. Queensland grabbed the world’s attention in 2009 with its “best job in the world” campaign to fill a six-month caretaker position to spotlight the Great Barrier Reef.

Switzerland had Robert de Niro complaining to Roger Federer that his country was “too perfect” for a film location. The wry banter ended with the line: “When you need a vacation without drama”. In 2020, Iceland’s “let it all out” campaign featured harried people screaming their lungs out in remote scenic locations. It was an instant hit and showcased the country with a sense of zany humour.

02:07

Hong Kong to give away 500,000 airline tickets as part of a HK$2 billion promotion campaign

Hong Kong would do well to return to its local designer roots rather than pushing bland luxury shopping for mainland visitors who have moved on. Home-grown artists, niche family stores and vibrant creative communities need to be rehabilitated and offered low-rent space in prime locations. These are the people most marginalised by the pandemic and the relentless march of monoculture shopping centres.

Japan was the main tourism market for Hong Kong in the 1970s, followed by Southeast Asia and North America. Europe’s share grew steadily but, by the 1990s, the mainland and Taiwan had emerged as the top sources and the government put all its eggs in the mainland basket. Now the chickens have come home to roost.

Following a dip in arrivals, a 2015 research brief by the Legislative Council Secretariat called for diversification of source markets and candidly concluded that the slowdown reflected an over-reliance on mainland visitors. It also revealed that since the launch of Disneyland in 2005, newer spots such as Ngong Ping 360 and Sky 100 had proved “not particularly attractive”.

To pull itself out of the bog, the government has two splendid allies in Cathay Pacific Airways – to influence and fly in international visitors – and the MTR, to whisk them into the hidden interior. There is much these three can do if they work together.

05:01

Hong Kong needs more than an advertising campaign to restore its image

The MTR Corporation has a laudable mission of supporting the community which can be brought to the fore. By last November, the domestic rail network was carrying an average of about 4.9 million people daily. That is a lot of eyeballs, not counting the Airport Express and general station traffic.

The MTR is in an excellent position to galvanise passengers, including tourists, to discover local markets, sightsee and explore. The maps at stations are instructive but, given its heft and reach, the corporation can do much more.

At the Kam Sheung Road Station that serves Kam Tin township, for example, there is zero effort to promote the colourful flea market on adjacent MTR land. There is talk among some tenants that it may be shut down later this year in favour of yet another bland shopping centre. This does nothing to inspire urban weekenders in search of something different.

Just around the corner from the station are The Richfield cafes, housed in reimagined shipping containers and the fabulous Red Brick House Market, a former candle factory turned bric-a-brac weekend treat with everything from a fine bakery to candles, art, garments and handicrafts. Next door, the decades-old Sum Ngai Brass Factory has a charm all of its own.

Brass candlesticks are displayed at the Sum Ngai Brass Factory on Kam Sheung Road in Kam Tin. Photo: SCMP

For a conglomerate that reported a HK$2.4 billion (US$307 million) profit in the first half of 2023, it would do little damage to its bottom line to install bright billboards and posters around the station to draw attention to these areas. Buskers and artists could be offered performance space. Catchy, informative artwork on trains would encourage a spirit of discovery in concert with the Hong Kong Tourism Board.

This approach could boost other struggling areas such as Sham Shui Po, Temple Street, the Tung Choi Street Ladies’ Market and the Ping Shan Heritage Trail. It could raise people’s interest in the outdoors. The MTR Corp cannot appear to be a lazy landlord. It must become a community catalyst.

It is time for the real Hong Kong to be put on display. No one who visits the city can fail to be stirred. This is one of the world’s most exciting destinations. Forget being “Asia’s World City”, let’s become the “Greatest Show on Earth”.

Vijay Verghese is a long-time Hong Kong-based journalist and columnist, and editor of Smart Travel Asia and Asian Conversations