Welcome Mat
The great and good of Hong Kong’s tourism sector need to sit down with the government at senior level and hammer out a new tourism strategy. Because the old one is not working any more. I say this in my capacity as having been the first Commissioner for Tourism (1999-2000) and author of the first strategy paper.
This must be a collective effort, encouraging feedback and taking in points of view from all sources, just as it was a quarter century ago. Then Financial Secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen invariably set up such consultative bodies for each of the major activities under his purview, for example a Business Advisory Group for the helping business programme and a Services Promotion Strategy Group to help develop the service sector of the economy.
Several of the items under this latter group fed naturally into the work of the Tourism Strategy Group. Taken together we identified the need for an internationally branded theme park to supplement the appeal of Ocean Park to family visitors; an additional exhibition facility to take some of the load off the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wanchai so as to free up capacity for more conventions; and a world class cruise terminal. Ocean Terminal was described (a little unkindly) as not much more than a shopping arcade with a pier, adequate for smaller vessels but a long way short of what we needed to attract the luxury larger vessels the industry was beginning to use.
In due course these gaps in our physical infrastructure were filled by Hong Kong Disneyland, Asia World Expo, and the Kaitak cruise terminal.
The other major priority at that time was loosening up immigration controls over entry of potential visitors, particularly from the mainland.
The Tourism Strategy Committee, successor to TSG, has a lot on its plate. It will have to update the infrastructure requirements. We are all familiar with the disgraceful failure to provide adequate landside connections to the cruise terminal, now partially remedied, but where is the adjacent hotel (to provide accommodation for passengers just before and after their cruise) or the long-proposed long-stay car park, both still missing years after the terminal opened. We will also need to review sports facilities: the new Sports Park in Kaitak will be a wonderful venue when it opens but what about satellite venues for the preliminary rounds if we are to attract – for example – a major tennis event. Do we have enough that are up to standard?
The entry regime for visitors may need refreshing as well. Have we made tourists from as many source countries as possible visa-free? Could we be more generous on length of stay? Is it simple for sports players and entertainment artists coming to work for very short periods to secure the relevant visa. Could the regime in many cases be simplified or even scrapped?
Most attention nowadays is focusing on events-led tourism. Here Hong Kong has a good story to tell, but we must tell it properly, for example dropping use of the term “mega” to describe even the most trivial item. The big heart-shaped balloon? The different coloured shapes? Even the Hungry Ghost Festival made it to the mega events list. Really? We leave ourselves open to mocking by our competitors. And we don’t need to.
Hong Kong plays host to a very large number of trade shows, business meetings and other conventions which return every year. These are treasures and we should do our best to grow them and increase their number. Collectively they are extremely important but to be truly mega you have to move the needle. Few if any of these events, taken individually, qualify.
Inevitably much attention is now being paid to sports and entertainment. Hongkongers are rightly proud of the Hong Kong Sevens tournament and our role in popularising the Sevens format. In 2016 Rugby Sevens became an Olympic event. What is often overlooked now is that the event began on a relatively small scale here on the initiative of a single sports club, and grew to its present significance because of the enthusiasm of its founders. That argues in favour of taking events that already exist and throwing even more weight behind them. Obvious candidates are the Hong Kong Open at the world famous Fanling Golf Club, also the location of an event on the headline-grabbing LIV circuit. We have two winners and certainly shouldn’t be putting them at risk.
There are many opportunities for us to do more in sports. An excellent article in this newspaper last week from the Our Hong Kong Foundation outlined many of them. For me, given that many of the world’s top players, both men and women, are from Hong Kong and the mainland, it should be possible to develop a snooker tournament to rival the world championship held at the Crucible in Sheffield
For an additional recurring top-notch sports event, existing ones are sometimes up for sale but they are very expensive. If we are going down that route then my personal choice would be to have a Formula 1 street race.
The same principles apply to the entertainment sector. The annual HK Arts Festival and the Clockenflap music festival are both well established and popular with their target audiences. The Committee might like to discuss with the organisers what scope there might be to expand them. Are there any other niche events that could be developed?
One problem with events in the entertainment sphere is that tastes change. You need a different artist pretty much every year and when they are hot they are expensive.
For many years we rode on our reputation as a Shoppers’ Paradise. The important thing is for the committee to recognise that horse has run its last race. “Events Capital” might be stretching it a little. But we are certainly The Happening Place.