Slow Hong Kong Tourism, Mat Roll Restaurants, Empty Hotel Rooms

Hong Kong tourism is weakening. Very few tourists come, to the point that hotels are empty and restaurants are closed.

Over the eight months of this year, Hong Kong recorded only 34 million visitors. In fact, Hong Kong has tried various methods to attract many tourists.

This figure is still far from Hong Kong’s target to attract tourists as it was before the pandemic, which is 56 million tourists.

According to CNA, on Thursday (31/10/2024) the decrease in the number of tourists entering Hong Kong has affected business actors in the region. Kevin Shih is one of the Japanese restaurant owners in Wan Chai District.

He said that so far he had not seen a significant increase in the number of visitors to his restaurant after the break after the pandemic.

“The number of people hanging out in bars has gone down, the number of people hanging out late at night has also gone down, overall the number of people on the streets has also decreased. I think Hong Kong is still trying, but we are not. you had a lot of luck,” he said.

The president of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Commerce, Simon Wong Ka-wo, estimated that around 1,000 restaurants had closed between March and August this year. He said that one of the reasons was that the number of tourists to Hong Kong was decreasing. In addition, many Hong Kong residents prefer to eat or shop in China.

However, recently Wong Ka-wo explained that there have been developments that are worth being grateful for. Because many tourists came during the Golden Week or the national holidays in China at the beginning of the week in October last year.

“The arrival of tourists from mainland China and other countries is very encouraging. More new shops with different specialties have opened in early September to meet the demand,” said Wong Ka-wo.

It is not just restaurant businesses that are suffering from an economic downturn due to a lack of tourists coming to Hong Kong. Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels, as the parent company that operates the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong and 9 hotels around the world, explained that they had declined during that period.

The company’s major decline was caused by poor revenue performance in Hong Kong due to lack of tourist arrivals. But the CEO of Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels, Clement Kwok, remains optimistic that Hong Kong’s tourism market will slowly return to its best performance.

“More and more overseas visitors to Hong Kong are realizing that Hong Kong remains an attractive destination for business and leisure travellers,” he said.

Most of the 23 million tourists who came to Hong Kong between January and August this year came from mainland China. Meanwhile, the rest are tourists from the United States, Canada and Australia.

(upd/fem)