The Hong Kong government plans new legislation and regulation to clamp down on ‘forced shopping’ and other abuses of inbound tour groups.
For years, tourist agency scumbag-lowlifes working on commission have been ripping off down-market Mainland tourists by trapping them in stores, bullying them to buy overpriced garbage, abandoning them on the streets and other desperate measures up to and including the death of a hapless visitor.
The Mainlanders concerned were gullible, signing up to improbably cheap packages. And few right-thinking Hongkongers cared greatly that the city’s reputation was being damaged – the fewer tourists the better.
But still – why did the government take so long to act?
After all, Hong Kong officials would have us believe that Mainland tourists are the Most Important Life-Form in the Solar System, to whom all mere riffraff residents must bow. Furthermore, the intimidation and exploitation of these visitors made headlines over the border-boundary. To 1.3 billion Glorious Motherland Compatriots, Hong Kong’s treatment of tourists is another example of the city’s treachery, on a par with the Umbrella Movement or voting for localists.
We can suspect that the Hong Kong government found itself in its greatest ever quandary on this issue. On the one hand, as well as suggesting improper attitudes to Motherland kith and kin, imprisoning and cheating innocent Mainlanders is criminal, immoral and evil, and bound to undermine the city’s image and the tourism industry itself in the long run. On the other hand, landlords made big bucks out of it.
An almost-impossible circle to square – I’m surprised it’s taken only 10 years to make a decision.
The Big Move turns out to be relatively pain-free, in a hyper-stressful-upheaval-and-chaos sort of way. The new place is going to be a bit of a culture-shock: it has a security guard, and he puts up creepy government posters on the walls. Also, a nice view of the bright lights at night.
In the anarchic old walk-up down the hill, dogs were rare – a winter-time treat for the more traditional residents who liked the delicacy braised with black bean sauce. The new authoritarian building regime simply bans the beasts outright, as hotels do with durians.
Oh well…more fun cuddling up with some warm pussy, anyway. Just don’t grab it as it’ll swat you with its claws!
They do amuse so. With rapidly shrinking retail revenue, they announce better consumer protection. And the day Ocean Park announces horrendous losses, they increase the entrance price to unaffordable levels for most reasonable people. I suspect some input from the great John Tsang.
@Enid – Actually I think Ocean Park’s prices are not too unreasonable – at least when compared with concert prices for visiting stars. A full day out for less than the cost of a 2-hour show isn’t bad.
In other news, it looks like Jasper Tsang has been given orders to drop his good cop schtick. Now he’s saying that people who try to run for Chief Executive without Beijing’s blessing should be punished (how?), that any opposition camp members who manage to get themselves onto the Election Committee ought to be automatically disqualified, and that EC candidates should have to sign a form pledging to vote whichever way Beijing tells them to. I do not think Mr. Tsang is capable of facetiousness.
Old Newcomer – it does seem an odd strategy though to try and reverse falling visitor numbers to the park with a price hike. Especially seeing as how they cited dollar strength as contributory to the decline in mainland visitors.
Cassowary – Jasper’s under orders, of course – but I wonder if the orders aren’t more along the lines of “embarrass the Liaison Office, and the Jiang faction in charge of the Central Coordination Group for Hong Kong and Macau Affairs”. He may be capable of facetiousness if so instructed. Like Sing Pao?
@Cassowary
The harshest and most fitting punishment available to Beijing would be giving the unwanted candidate for the post of Chief Exonerative the job.
@ Real Fax Paper
Well, we saw how well the Singtao gambit worked. Beijing doubled down even harder. Xi Jinping must’ve decided that the (liberal or just opportunistic?) faction behind the Singtao editorials were an even bigger threat than the Liaison Office bunch. I think it’s more likely that Jasper Tsang is being reined in and his new job is to feed us horror scenarios so we’re relieved when Beijing pulls something not as bad.
@LRE
Don’t say that, you’ll curse us and we’ll end up with Regina Ip!