Opinion | To help Hong Kong’s battered tourism industry, the government must set out a clear coronavirus strategy

Name: Hong Kong unveils mega relief package, tightens measures as imported coronavirus cases rise
Uploaded: 2021-02-05T22:45:06.000Z
Duration: 1 min 44 s
Description: Hong Kong unveils mega relief package, tightens measures as imported coronavirus cases rise

To revive the sector, there must be a clear plan for quarantines and border closures, and a travel protocol for those who have been vaccinated. The government should also consider extending dining hours to 9pm

Reading Time:3 minutes

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A lit window at a hotel in Hong Kong, amid the coronavirus pandemic. The tourism and hospitality industry is in a desperate situation and companies’ survival is at stake. Photo: Reuters

Jennifer Cronin

Published: 6:45am, 6 Feb 2021Updated: 6:54am, 6 Feb 2021

Hong Kong’s hotels have traditionally been a conduit for the world to meet, celebrities and society to see and be seen, businesspeople to conduct deals, bands to play music, and local families to make memories over dim sum and tea.

Our hotel brands and people are renowned for offering the world’s best service. The tourism industry has been one of Hong Kong’s core pillars for more than a century, contributing 4.5 per cent to gross domestic product and employing 257,000 people.

One year after the first reports of Covid-19, which combined with social unrest into a double whammy, Hong Kong’s borders remain closed, our hotel lobbies are empty, thousands of restaurants are shuttered, and music has fallen silent.

Not since the second world war has the tourism industry faced such a desperate situation. Hong Kong unemployment is at a 16-year high of 6.6 per cent, with 245,800 people out of work. The catering sector reported a jobless rate of 13.8 per cent and hotels, 8.8 per cent.

Worse may follow, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po has warned. For hardworking Hong Kong people, losing their job is devastating. While we appreciate the government subsidies we received last year, they are a drop in the ocean compared to what businesses need to survive, with cash burn in the tens of millions of dollars.

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Hong Kong unveils mega relief package, tightens measures as imported coronavirus cases rise

Wharf Hotels, The Peninsula Hotels, Langham Hotels and Harilela Hotels have had to lay off thousands of people across our companies. Some have worked for us for decades, with families to support, and it is heartbreaking to see them go.