HKFP on Hongkongers going to the Mainland to enjoy far lower-priced shopping and leisure…
During the four-day Easter holiday last week, around 1.86 million Hong Kong residents left the city, with around 1.6 million heading to mainland China, according to the Immigration Department.
Meanwhile, the number of travellers visiting Hong Kong over the Easter holiday only reached over half a million.
The tourism deficit has left the city’s shopping malls and restaurants reeling.
Simon Wong, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants & Related Trades, reckoned the city’s food and beverage industry suffered a 30 per cent drop in business during this year’s Easter holiday.
All of which leaves Hong Kong sorely vexed. They view people spending across the border rather like Donald Trump sees cheap imported manufactured goods: somehow bad for the economy even though it’s good for consumers.
The difference is that Trump doesn’t understand the basic economics, while Hong Kong policymakers have a clear rationale. To them, money spent on groceries and personal services in Shenzhen is money that doesn’t flow into the pockets of Hong Kong landlords. This depresses land valuations, which in turn reduces government revenues, which in turn threatens expenditure on mega-projects and – horror of horrors – bureaucrats’ generous salaries.
But what did they think ‘integration’ would mean?
Well, it’s obvious ‘understanding China better’ wasn’t meant to include people going there and spending money.
We need to decouple from GBA! – How to do???!!
..and another thing; the Mainland tourists HKG gets (by far the largest % of tourists) are mostly low-cost tour groups who are basically taken to the same tourist spots and then to restaurants that are well connected* to the tour group operators. Then the Instagram/RedBook Army, who are more interested in having a photo taken in… the same places as all the other Instagrammers. Neither group has much money to spend on higher-value tourist items or F&B. Look at the queue outside Bakehouse in SoHo waiting to buy an egg tart, and how nearly all the bars and restaurants are empty.
There are other groups of tourists from the ML, of course. Still, most don’t even stay overnight, choosing to come over on a cheap bus, go hiking, or visit a tourist destination (thus filling the place to capacity, so that no one with money to spend actually wants to visit those places at all), and then go home again. Others who previously would have bought a lot of luxury tat no longer want to be seen to be spending a lot of money, as it may bring too much attention from the authorities in China.
Well, this is what HKG and the CCP wanted…a little Serf City.
GBA, baby!!!!!
They thought, I think, the reverse would happen. That’s why they agreed to fund huge amounts for the rail and the bridge to GBA. The Legco paper probably had some projections how much tourists and money they would bring in, and justifying the spend.
“HKFP on Hongkongers going to the Mainland to enjoy far lower-priced shopping and leisure…”
“has left the city’s shopping malls and restaurants reeling.”
So the solution is to build more shopping malls to cannabilize the existing stock, fill in the harbour, and make the city even less desirable to both locals and visitors.
>Stu,
Fair point & it was assumed that Chinese tourists would buy luxury and expensive stuff for eternity, and they’d never find such trinkets cheaper elsewhere.
The newer tourists only want to spend money on things they can’t get on the Mainland – why go to an expensive restaurant when you can buy more food and drinks cheaper anywhere else in China?
All is not lost. The other day I noticed what appeared to be queues of tourists having their photos taken next to Mr Softee ice-cream vans. One van was located next to the Star Ferry, the other not far from Sogo. Egg tarts are so passe now.
>Been Here Too Long,
I’ve seen Instagrammers buy an ice cream, have their photos taken & then throw the ice cream away.
Whatever.
Regarding malls – iSquare must be 50% empty now and local type malls similarly -Hung Hom square near my office is now mostly give. Over to the grab machines – with rarely anyone using them. I wonder* what they are all about.