EditorialLong holiday to forget reminds Hong Kong it simply cannot afford to relax
- Departures from city outnumbered arrivals by nearly four to one and brought home how it will take more than a big marketing campaign to get visitors back
Tourism remains a pillar of Hong Kong’s economy. But the revival of the sector after the dampeners of the 2019 social unrest and the pandemic is not to be taken for granted.
Evidence of that is to be found in border-crossing figures around the holiday weekend, which brought mixed results for traders, including caterers, who hoped for a lift in business comparable with the good old days.
In the first three days of the Easter long weekend, 860,000 residents left Hong Kong while only 245,000 arrived, mainly from the mainland. Counting the six days straddling Ching Ming and Easter, which many in Hong Kong turned into a holiday, departures outnumbered arrivals by nearly four to one.
These figures follow a recent upward trend in arrivals, with the weekend daily figure finally topping 100,000 last month. But even that fell far short of the annual 51 million a few years ago.
One weekend does not make a season or a year. A smooth, incremental recovery that reflects hard lessons of the past will ultimately tend to be more rewarding.
Nonetheless the result is disappointing and sounds alarm bells that should not be ignored.