Outside In | Hong Kong must heal 2019 wounds for its own sake, not to win back tourists
- Critics – mostly Western – of Hong Kong’s reopening say the city must address the impact of social unrest on its international reputation
- Drawing a line under the 2019 protests is important for society, but it makes little difference to tourists, very few of whom are actually from Western countries
The World Travel and Tourism Council calculated that the contribution of travel and tourism to our economy shrank from HK$347 billion (US$44.7 billion) or 12.1 per cent of GDP in 2019 to HK$92.9 billion in 2021 – a paltry 3.2 per cent of GDP, with visitor spending down from HK$276 billion to a bare HK$7.7 billion.
But how quickly the world clamours to reopen to us is an open question.
The sobering reality is that The New York Times, indifferent to the launch excitement among Hong Kong’s tourism promoters, headlined its report: “Hong Kong tries to repair its battered image with plane ticket giveaway”. It continued: “Interested in visiting a place that still calls itself ‘Asia’s world city’ despite mounting evidence that it is marching toward an insular, authoritarian future?”.