Hong Kong hospitality campaign needed after sector hurt by pandemic, bad apples: tourism chief Kevin Yeung

‘What we are after is the spirit of serving. We want to push for a genuine welcome for tourists from the bottom of our hearts,’ tourism minister Kevin Yeung says

‘Let’s go the Extra Mile’ campaign, featuring film stars such as Louis Koo and Stephy Tang, is aimed at encouraging sector to improve its quality of service

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Tourism minister Kevin Yeung (centre), along with other officials, launched the city’s hospitality campaign on Monday. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Published: 6:32pm, 3 Jun 2024Updated: 11:32am, 4 Jun 2024

Hong Kong’s service industry has been tainted by a few bad apples on social media and three years of the pandemic, making it necessary for the government to launch a campaign to push the sector forward, the tourism chief has said.

“What we are after is the spirit of serving. We want to push for a genuine welcome for tourists from the bottom of our hearts. It will be a good showcase of Hong Kong, whether it is attracting visitors or boosting the city’s image,” Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Kevin Yeung Yun-hung said on Monday.

“The vast majority of the practitioners in the service industry are very courteous and are passionate about serving their customers,” he added. “But it is true that there may have been some isolated cases that were shared on social media that created misunderstanding.”

Yeung was speaking at the launch of the government’s “Let’s go the Extra Mile” campaign, aimed at addressing Hong Kong’s notoriously poor quality services with a series of initiatives, including short videos featuring film stars such as Louis Koo Tin-lok and Stephy Tang Lai-yan.

Let’s go the extra mile even when we are shopping💁‍♂️❤️! 好客之道｜今時今日，shopping都可以做多一步！

One video released on Monday features Koo asking, “What kind of service attitude is considered good enough these days?”, before being served by a shoe shop worker who takes the initiative to give him an alternative size that fits him better.