Environmentalists – like anyone out and about in certain parts of Hong Kong on Thursday – encountered unmanageable numbers of Mainland visitors. HKFP reports…
Crowds caused erosion along the trail, the NGO said, with plants trampled underfoot and rampant littering in the form of plastic bottles, tissues, and food remains. Some tourists were suspected of defecating on the natural beauty site, the group added.
In my case it was a traffic jam near the Peak Tram and the sight of huge lines at the bus stops outside Admiralty MTR. God help any residents needing to take a Number 6 to or from Stanley that day.
Numberwang digs up the statistical evidence that more and more Mainland tourists are spending less and less…
One of the great concerns among politicians and citizens is a tourism race to the bottom, in which Hong Kong officials seem to be only concerned with the number of visitors to the city, while paying lip service to the notion that the government needs to develop its tourism profile to attract wealthier tourists who are willing to spend more. Even Hong Kong’s recently published Five-Year Plan calls for attracting “high value-added visitors” through better tourism products.
A good place to have your photo taken, but bring your own lunch.
Bureaucrats cram more and more tourists into Hong Kong in an effort to boost retail sales, which will also of course keep rents high. Yet the high costs – due especially to rents – dissuade the tourists from spending money here. Would it be ‘soft resistance’ to point out that this doesn’t make sense? Or that ‘high value-added visitors’ choose destinations that have authentic local character and are not crowded with other tourists?