During the three -year period of the crown disease epidemic, the number of travelers visiting Hong Kong was almost zero, which caused unprecedented impact on the tourism industry.Surprisingly, the speed of recovery in Hong Kong's tourism industry after the epidemic in 2023 is quite slow, and the number of tourists in the past year has not quickly rebounded as expected.
According to the data of the Hong Kong Tourism Development Bureau, about 52 million people visited Hong Kong before the epidemic, first 11 months in 2019.From January to November last year, there were only about 307 million tourists visiting Hong Kong, less than 60 % in the same period in the same period in 2019. There was still a very distant distance from the goal of fully recovery.
In view of this, Hong Kong society has recently discussed how to reshape the reputation of tourism paradise in Hong Kong.The new district council has been new earlier this month. The 18th District Council of Hong Kong has each proposed different activities, hoping to attract more tourists to visit Hong Kong to boost the regional economy.Unfortunately, most activities are not much different from before, reflecting that Hong Kong people still seem to have not found the real reason why Hong Kong's tourism industry's attraction is no longer.
Once upon a time, Hong Kong has always been the first choice for mainland China's favorite tourism.Since the implementation of the Hong Kong and Macau's free bank policy in 2003, many residents of mainland China have flooded to Hong Kong to travel, which has played a huge role in promoting the rapid growth of Hong Kong tourism and retail industry.Randomly asked some mainland tourists on the street, and many people would say that there are two main reasons for them to travel to Hong Kong.
First, Hong Kong is an international city of Chinese and Western cultures. Here you can experience the atmosphere that the mainland does not have.For example, the Chinese society's coexistence has developed a set of food habits that combine Chinese cuisine and western food. For example, tea restaurants have absorbed British afternoon tea culture and created two types of Chinese and Western cultures, two Chinese and Western cultures.Traditional and modern culture can be seen everywhere, these are the unique appeal of Hong Kong.
The second is that Hong Kong is a free port, and the import and export of goods are exempt. The same international brand -brand goods are often cheaper than the mainland.For many Guangdong people, they are not traveling in Hong Kong, but shopping.When it comes to Hong Kong's tourism industry, most people mention the characteristics of shopping paradise.
In the past ten years, a series of events such as anti -parallel customers and harassing mainland tourists have appeared in Hong Kong, which has more or less cracking down on the willingness of many mainland people to travel to Hong Kong.However, the most important and direct reason why Hong Kong's tourism industry fails to recover after the epidemic is because the two unique advantages of the above two major Hong Kong are gradually disappearing.
The Sino -US trade war has continued for five years. During the period, China has continuously opened the market to the outside world, including reducing the import tariffs on daily consumer goods. Hong Kong's goods have no price advantage.Coupled with the strict investigation of luggage and strict taxes in mainland customs in recent years, to some extent, it has hindered the willingness to travel to Hong Kong in Hong Kong to a certain extent, which led to worse in Hong Kong's tourism industry.
In fact, in addition to the shopping advantage of the past as a duty -free port in Hong Kong, it has disappeared, and the cost of tourism is getting higher and higher.Taking hotel accommodation as an example, the overall housing price of hotels in Hong Kong is higher than the average level in 2018.
Many mainland travelers believe that Hong Kong's house prices are expensive, and they would rather choose to return to Shenzhen to save travel expenses.Data from the Hong Kong Tourism Development Bureau. Among the mainland passengers visiting Hong Kong last November, only about 1.06 million people chose overnight, which was only about 64%compared to the same period in 2018.
At the same time, as Singapore, Thailand and other countries successively exempt Chinese tourists from visas, more and more people in the mainland are traveling to travel, which means that the tourism industry in Hong Kong is facing more intense competition.Recently, Hong Kong people flock to consumption in the north and have also become a topic in the city.
Obviously, from the perspective of tourism, Hong Kong enjoys a unique living model under the "one country, two systems", etc., and still maintains the "two systems" characteristics in many details.Taking the countdown countdown and fireworks performances as an example, it has attracted hundreds of thousands of mainland passengers to go to Hong Kong to watch on both sides of Victoria Harbor.The reason why mainland travelers want to go to Hong Kong to see fireworks are quite successful in addition to Hong Kong's activities. The bigger reason is that the mainland will ban large -scale public activities in the New Year this year, without similar fireworks performances.
But these advantages are not static.With the continuous development of mainland China, the so -called tourism characteristics of Hong Kong will continue to weaken.In the next days in Hong Kong, it is prepared to host large and small activities. There may be characteristics of various districts, but for overseas tourists, it may not have the characteristics of Hong Kong, and it is not a long -term stimulation of tourism.
Remember that a friend of mainland China went to Hong Kong to travel in Hong Kong earlier. I accompanied him to Tsim Sha Tsui at night. We looked at the opposite Victoria Harbor night view from the distance from Tsimidong Shinxing Wharf. My friend suddenly said, "Why is it so like Shanghai Bund!"It turned out that the protagonists on the outer wall of the opposite side building were all well -known brands in the mainland.
In the past, these advertisements were generally half of Chinese and Western enterprises. Advertising in Chinese and Western enterprises gathered in the Victoria Harbor Building, and collided with each other unique cultural sparks.The protagonist of the advertiser shifted from Western companies to the mainland enterprise, which shows that the integration of Lu and Hong Kong is increasingly closely integrated. To a certain extent, Hong Kong is moving towards the mainland, and the attractiveness of mainland tourists has naturally reduced naturally.
Entering 2024, the Hong Kong Government was full of abdomen and was preparing to attract more passengers to Hong Kong.It is reported that the Chinese government may announce the free travel of freedom by "step -by -step" before the Lunar New Year, restore or even expand the "one sign, and multi -line" cities. At that time, the number of tourists visiting Hong Kong is expected to recover significantly.
However, the tourism industry in Hong Kong has gone through a long -term high -speed development in the past 20 years, and it is gradually losing its unique attraction. This is a serious structural problem, not a periodic issue.In addition to the Hong Kong tourism industry in the future, it is more important to find new features. Only in this way can it continue to develop.
