Welcome to Asia’s low-quality tour-group hub!

The scumbaggiest part of the always-tawdry tourism industry demands an increase in squatting, lunchbox-munching-outside-toilets group tours…

A tourism trade representative said on Monday that there’s a need for Hong Kong to operate low-cost tours, saying it doesn’t necessarily mean that they would engage in forced shopping.

Last Friday, Chinese newspaper Oriental Daily reported that such tours have filled parts of Kowloon, with mainland tourists having to eat cheap takeaways on the streets.

The industry says such tours are essential ‘to revive the [tourism] sector’. So how about not reviving this parasite industry? Why does a developed economy, with a shortage of both manpower and space, need millions of low-spending visitors? Or is pushing up rents and angering the populace the whole point?

On the Mid-Levels escalator over the weekend, I encountered a parade of maybe two dozen bewildered and depressed-looking elderly Westerners – all in disposable plastic raincoats – being led by a sleazy-looking flag-waving guide. No instant noodles, so presumably they were at the classier end of the mass-tourism spectrum. But even so, they were in serious danger of being flung over the side by irate locals with things to do. 

Modest proposal: make members of ‘low quality’ tour groups wear numbered tags and confine themselves within a strip of barrier tape, which they must carry themselves.

Photo of the Day: if Regina Ip and her entourage stooped over and pointed at you, wouldn’t you feel like a fish out of water?

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12 Responses to Welcome to Asia’s low-quality tour-group hub!

  1. Chinese Netizen says:

    Vag just reinforcing her c**tness, lest we forget (not for lack of trying).

    Nothing new…she probably thought this would win her Patriot Points™ should she try for some kind of “leadership” position one day.

  2. Stanley Lieber says:

    This morning I spotted two more of the aforementioned groups of depressed-looking Western tourists, one group in Lyndhurst Terrace and the other in escalator-land, all wearing audio boxes. They didn’t look much like high spenders, either.

  3. Mjrelje says:

    Even better than the low spending flag followers, the crusty begpackers are back on IFC walkway. Normalcy returns.

  4. Mary Melville says:

    Hong Kong Inbound Tour Operators Association founding president Ricky Tse said such issues are inevitable, given the large number of visitors, “but the benefits outweigh the issues that need to be dealt with.”
    What benefits?????? These days even restaurants don’t get a bite of the action, the box lunches and noodles are probably brought in on the bus with the group.
    Hopefully the caretakers of the public loos at popular locations are being given a bonus for coping with the increased activity. Any shopping done will be at dedicated outlets that are operated by mainland operators.
    The tourism sector had three years to come up with an improved modus operandi but instead there has been a further deterioration as previously the groups were taken to restaurants where they could use the toilets.
    But hey, the current Secretary for Tourism is the same Kevin Yeung who was previously Secretary for Education, so in view of the decline and fall of that profession under his supervision, record numbers of departing teachers, we can only expect a race to the bottom when it comes to tourism.

  5. Joe Blow says:

    What sort of demographic would ever vote for Vagina Ip?

  6. Old Mind Doctor says:

    Russian?

  7. Fish and Shits says:

    Re pic:
    I’m tempted to recall this recent scathing tweet about a similar photo:
    “It’s telling that Suella Braverman took a pack of selected journalists to Rwanda, designed to paint her in the best light, and she still came out of every photo opportunity looking like a soulless monster.”

    Perhaps the pair were deported at birth?

  8. Low Profile says:

    @Fish – Suella and her boss Rishi took a short walk through a town in England the other day, but cut it short after a few minutes when some local residents told them refugees were welcome there, but they weren’t. What is it about these offspring of immigrants (her and her predecessor Priti Patel) that makes them so heartless towards more recent arrivals? Unresolved conflicts with their parents?

  9. @Fish and Shits says:

    How DARE you imply a member of the master race and Suella Braverman emerged from the same womb

    Wait! “Deported at birth!” ha ha ha …. good one!

  10. Steve Mc Garret says:

    Here in Stanley, we have been subjected to coach loads of mainlanders for about two or three weeks. I was accosted by two mandarin-speaking girls looking for money to buy food. As I think it unlikely they would have spent all their money on a coach trip, I suspect some organisation is providing the trips for free. It may be an attempt to artificially raise tourist numbers to show that things have returned to “normal”.

  11. Mary Melville says:

    Re Steve McG: There appears to be a misconception among our ‘tourists’ that gweilos/pos are an easy touch. A number of occasions recently I have had women pounce on me on Nathan Road looking for cash while completely ignoring the thousands of locals. They hang around bus stops.
    These gals look somewhat shocked by the ‘On yer bike’ response.
    And talking about bikes, when the mainland SMI geezer had his nicked in MKK a few weeks ago why were fingers pointed at Honkies?

  12. Din Gao says:

    Source: Wife (local online media consumer)

    Apparently, the free airline tickets ate:
    One-way (into HK)
    Not free as recipients have to pay all taxes
    The recipient has to pay for a one-way return ticket

    The total cost of flying into and out of HK on the scheme ends up being more than buying a two-way return ticket instead

    True or False?

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