Q Should anyone be blamed if Harbour Fest ticket sales do not improve?
The American Chamber of Commerce's mission statement is to foster commerce among the US, Hong Kong and the mainland and enhance Hong Kong's stature as an international business centre. It is clearly not a concert organiser and the attendance at the concerts is evidence of that.
The marketing and advertising has been haphazard, the tickets are over-priced and the seating at the venue is a disaster. AmCham should have advertised on buses and trams to reach the public. It should have set prices so the public could afford to go. The event is being subsidised by the taxpayer but priced so the average taxpayer can't afford to go.
The seating is so bad that unless you are in the middle two to three sections you can barely see anything. You could pay $750 for a ticket to the left or right of the stage and be looking at Pacific Place and a Harbour Fest banner.
We all know the best advertising is word of mouth, and no one who has found themselves seated to the left or right of the stage would recommend that their friends buy tickets for other concerts. There is still time to fix the seating arrangements, and that might improve ticket sales.
The issue of free and heavily subsidised seating has created a lot of bad press. Unless there is transparency with ticket sales and this issue is resolved, people will be reluctant to buy tickets.
