How do you market Hong Kong? If your target is mainland tourists, not much effort would be required other than continuing to badger mainland public security authorities to allow more well-heeled tourists to visit Hong Kong. Naturally, we need to do our part by making sure that our tourist agents don't swindle them; our shops and restaurants live up to their good name; and our most successful, homegrown Ocean Park continues to wow visitors. Selling Hong Kong to mainland visitors is relatively easy. Brand Hong Kong means good food and safe products. Keep that up and the mainlanders will keep coming our way.
Selling Hong Kong to the rest of the world is much more tricky. Not that wowing the world is a priority now, or any time soon. In 2008, mainland visitors made up more than 57 per cent of total tourist arrivals, and grew at a much faster rate than those from the rest of the world. With further relaxing of travel restrictions, mainland visitors are expected to fill the slack created by the withering of visitors from the hitherto affluent developed world. Compared to Singapore, and many other Asian cities, we are indeed lucky to be part of a gigantic, rising nation that sends its cash-rich visitors to our shores and stores.
As an aspiring 'world city', however, it would be remiss not to reflect on how best we could sell ourselves to the rest of the world. Those who have lived abroad would be struck by the lack of TV or other screen advertising about Hong Kong. Other places have been much more aggressive in marketing themselves: India is spectacularly portrayed as 'Incredible India'; Australia, the land of romantic getaways and endless adventure; Japan as cool, soulful, beautiful and delightful; and Malaysia, the land of culture and heritage, islands and beaches, city wonders and eco-adventure. Adverts on Hong Kong are conspicuously absent.
It is not hard to explain Hong Kong's yawning screen absence. With a baseline promotional budget of HK$320 million, we can hardly afford to splash out on international TV or the cinema. In the present economic climate, efforts directed at the rest of the world would be an ill-timed waste.
More importantly, for some time we have been at a loss to update our brand because we are unsure about our identity: what we believe in, what we stand for, and what our key messages are. Should the antiquated junk, the logo of our Tourism Board, continue to be our city's tourism symbol? What about the bauhinia, or the ever-changing harbourfront skyline? Put that question to our tourism authorities and you find them tongue-tied to give a credible answer. How about Hong Kong as a world financial centre? Now that financial centres have become synonymous with excesses and runaway greed, at this moment, not even the most ardent promoters of Hong Kong as an international financial centre would want to trumpet that.
There is actually a much more cost-effective way to market Hong Kong. Go online. Make full use of the latest, hottest IT gadgets at our disposal. Upload videos of Hong Kong at its best or funniest to YouTube. Upload Hong Kong's stupendous fireworks display at the last Lunar New Year's Eve, or other interesting aspects of Hong Kong life. Advertise Hong Kong on popular sites like Facebook. Above all, make use of the increasingly ubiquitous hand-held devices for downloading fun applications. Get Hong Kong's best IT minds to write applications about Hong Kong: the best restaurants, the best bargains, the best country parks or nature trails to explore, that can be uploaded to Apple's online store. Make it fun and get the cyber crowds to download them to their iPhones for free, or a token HK$1. Create applications that popularise Hong Kong to the Blackberry horde who are hardwired to their hand-held toys.