Twins
I’m not trying to be a party pooper here, but I really think it’s time we calmly considered the implications of the birth at Ocean Park of panda twins. In all the excitement, some have made rather exaggerated claims. For example, welcome though the births are for various reasons, they are not going to give a dramatic boost to tourist numbers. And talk of a “Panda Economy” is, frankly, fantasy.
Let’s start with the good news. Any panda birth can be seen as a triumph as natural breeding attempts are apparently infrequent. Artificial insemination has been used to preserve the species, but despite this success is still relatively rare. And sometimes, according to retired Executive Director Zoological Operations at Ocean Park Suzanne Gendron, the foetus is simply absorbed by the mother rather than being brought to term. It follows that twins are relatively even rarer, and in the wild one of the cubs is easily lost as the mother has only enough milk to nurse one.
What makes the recent Hong Kong births even more remarkable is that both Ying Ying and Le Le are a bit long in the tooth – the former is thought to be the oldest female to give birth at age 19 (equivalent to 57 for a human). The twins are being fed alternately with their own mother’s milk (so they acquire natural immunity) supplemented by additional supplies being brought in from Sichuan Province.
Two more adults are being gifted to us next month by the central government. If as we all hope both twins survive the next three critical months, Hong Kong will then have a total of six. Good news, very exciting and I would imagine many Hong Kong residents would visit Ocean Park in coming months to see them.
What will be the impact on tourism? The first thing to take into account is that many other countries and places have pandas in their zoos under arrangements reached with the central government and Sichuan authorities. They include eight countries in Western Europe (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain) eight places in the region (Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Macau and Taiwan), two in the Americas (Mexico and USA – both Atlanta and San Diego zoos) and two miscellaneous (Qatar and Russia). As can be seen, these are precisely the kind of long and medium haul markets from which we aim to draw well-heeled tourists. But they already have options closer to home if they are content to see pandas in captivity. And if they want to see them in a more natural setting, and are prepared to fly long distances to do so, then surely they would choose Sichuan itself.
That doesn’t mean the Hong Kong pandas won’t have any impact on local tourism. Hong Kong has two world class theme parks, viz Hong Kong Disneyland and Ocean Park. Visitors do come from other places, especially from India and ASEAN countries, in order to go to the former. Few if any come here specifically to go to Ocean Park, but if they are here for other reasons then the presence of so many pandas is a potential reason for them to visit the park and perhaps extend their stay. So a useful addition, but not a game changer.
In their enthusiasm, some have floated the idea that pandas should be incorporated into the branding of Hong Kong, with copyrighted products and logos being developed and adopted by all members of the Hong Kong family including Cathay Pacific. Try as I might, I find it hard to spot the pot of gold at the end of the panda economy rainbow. For one thing, as pointed out above, Ocean Park is by no means unique in hosting this endangered species. We are one of more than 20 places, is the difference between six animals and two really so meaningful? The panda logo is already well established as representing the World Wildlife Fund. A casual internet search uncovers simply thousands of royalty-free panda logos. If a part of China deserved a distinctive adaptation, surely it would be Sichuan Province itself rather than Hong Kong.
The desire to find some new distinctive way to attract visitors to our city is understandable. A press release issued earlier this month by the Hong Kong Tourism Board shows just have far we still have to go in the recovery from the events of 2019 and 2020. In the first seven months of 2024 we played host to some 25 million visitors, of whom over 19 million were from the mainland. A simple mathematical extrapolation suggests we are on course for a total of about 43 million for the full year. This compares with the 60 million plus we were attracting pre-Covid.
If we are going to shoot for a return to those dizzy heights, then we are going to have to look beyond pandas, we need some bona fide mega events. Once the Kaitak Sports Park opens, hopefully in time for the 2025 rugby Sevens, then we will have a competitive venue for major entertainment and sports events. Entertainment superstars are never cheap. The kind of sports events that draw large numbers of visitors and/or attract extensive media coverage are also expensive and tend to be competitive (rather than friendly) rugby and football matches, Formula 1 grand prix, and tennis or golf tournaments for which the prize money is sufficient to attract the world’s top players. We should dust off the motor racing file. Fortune has given us a top golf tournament in LIV. Perhaps in the short term we should focus on retaining it by not building housing in the middle of the fairway.