New ideas for the HKTB

How do you be patriotic and boost the tourism sector at the same time? China Media Project adds ‘Red Tourism’ to its dictionary. While it has a clear ideological function, encouraging leisure travel to remote spots on the Long March route provides an economic boost to poorer regions…

“Red tourism” has helped cultivate and maintain this national [‘patriotic education’] vision as subsequent leaders have pushed forward economic development and modernization, while also bringing business and development to “old revolutionary areas,” many of which were rural and poor. Local governments have poured hundreds of millions of yuan into these projects, which involve not only the construction of museums, monuments, and heritage sites, but also the development of tourism infrastructure including roads, hotels, and ample public transportation. 

It’s a money-spinner! Why hasn’t Hong Kong thought of this? Stop chopping down trees to create more inane light shows – launch the new ‘National Security Tour’: visit the old HQ of the newspaper that was shuttered for collusion with foreign powers; walk along the same streets where the CIA paid a million ‘black hands’ to overthrow the motherland; enjoy an ice cream at the park where thousands of people tried to subvert state power every year; buy a T-shirt denouncing seditious incitement at the closed-down bookstore. As the article quotes People’s Daily… 

Red tourism is both a conceptual innovation and an industrial innovation. The development of red tourism will help explore a virtuous cycle in which, under the socialist market economy, social benefits and economic benefits are well integrated, spiritual wealth is transformed into social wealth. Together, they are of benefit to the society and the people.