Destinations known | Hong Kong is not overcrowded, it is a victim of mass mainland Chinese tourism – and so are the visitors
Despite a survey saying mainland tourists would rather visit Australia, Japan or Singapore than Hong Kong, the city welcomed 51 million people across the border last year
Is increased accessibility from the mainland, thanks to the opening of the high-speed rail link and Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, to blame for burgeoning numbers?
Residents of Tung Chung and Causeway Bay can breathe a sigh of relief. Apparently, tourists from mainland China would rather visit Australia, Japan or Singapore than little old Hong Kong, at least according to a survey conducted by consultancy firm Kantar. Of the 300 people polled from four tier-one cities – Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen – just 35 per cent were interested in Hong Kong as a holiday destination.
“Urban Chinese holidaymakers are looking for a diversity of experiences,” stated the report, which was released in January. “The dominance of nature in the minds of urban Chinese leisure travellers may, at face value, present a challenge for retailers, malls, theme parks and other places,” it continued.
What those 300 nature-loving “urban Chinese holidaymakers” don’t represent, however, are the millions of mainland visitors who cross the border every month. In 2018, Hong Kong recorded 65.1 million international arrivals, of which 51 million were from the Middle Kingdom (although many of those were just popping over to do whatever it is those just popping over do). Step aside Kyoto, we have a new candidate for the Asian city most under siege from mass tourism, and it is our fair territory.
Hong Kong headed Euromonitor’s list of the “Top 100 City Destinations 2018”, beating Bangkok, London, Singapore and Macau to pole position. Published in December, the report notes that, “Hong Kong is the most obvious beneficiary of the Chinese outbound boom,” before adding that the openings of the high-speed rail link and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge last year have greatly increased accessibility from the mainland.
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Evidence of Hong Kong’s new-and-improved openness was observed during the Lunar New Year, when more than 700,000 mainland Chinese entered Hong Kong in just three days, a 37 per cent increase on the festive period a year earlier. And in much the same way that Manhattan, in New York, maligns its “bridge and tunnel crowd”, so too is the SAR’s “bridge and train” influx looked upon with disdain.
“I don’t mind tourists from overseas or even mainland China,” one Tung Chung inhabitant told The New York Times. “But not that kind of tourist, if you know what I mean.” Another referred to the “people from the bridge” as “low-end” tourists, while residents of Choi Hung’s Instagram-famous public housing estate and the Yik Cheong Building, in Quarry Bay, complain of disruption to their daily lives, and concern groups from Hung Hom to Kowloon City have called for the government to cap the number of mainland visitors coming to the city.
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Financial Secretary Paul Chan. Picture: Winson Wong
