Letters | Stop counting tourists, start valuing communities in Hong Kong
Readers discuss the impact of efforts to attract tourists, the city’s role in global AI governance, and a popular comic strip
Having been born and raised in Hong Kong, I never thought I’d dread walking through my own city. Yet here we are: Mong Kok’s pavements jammed with suitcase drag races, Tsim Sha Tsui’s escalators choked by photo-taking crowds and Causeway Bay’s alleys reeking of abandoned egg waffle boxes. The government’s relentless push to attract tourists – more than 20 million visited between January and May – while liveability takes a hit seems less like economic vision and more like civic betrayal.
Last month, I watched four tourists sprawl across a Jordan staircase to take photographs while elderly residents struggled past with their groceries. When a shopkeeper politely asked them to move, they snapped: “We paid to be here!” This entitlement blooms under official indulgence. Despite promising “high-value tourism”, officials still appear to measure success by headcount alone.
The human cost is buried in statistics. A Temple Street dai pai dong waitress told me she now works 14-hour shifts serving HK$10 (US$1.3) pineapple buns to tour groups. “They order one bun, occupy six seats for two hours, then complain about the tea,” she sighed.
The government could consider a district-specific daily entry cap and tax disruptive group tours. Kyoto in Japan, for example, has banned tourist access to some roads in its Gion district.
We’re not anti-tourist – Hong Kong was built on exchange. But we must be careful not to sacrifice our city’s soul for vanity metrics. Tourists deserve authentic culture; we deserve neighbourhoods, not theme parks. Stop counting visitors and start valuing communities.