Hong Kong Sees Crisis as Its Path to Overdue Reinvention of Tourism
Photo Credit: The Peak Tram Hong Kong skyline. The Hongkong & Shanghai Hotels. / Paul Yeung
Skift Take
Efforts to diversify markets, build new products, and raise service levels have been too slow. Hong Kong's tourism authorities finally see the light in these dark times.
A long overdue repositioning of Hong Kong's tourism offering is in the cards — finally.
While Hong Kong Tourism Board's immediate priority is rightly focused on recovery, industry members said the wider concern is how the coronavirus pandemic and pro-democracy protests have exposed Hong Kong's lack of tourism vision and the need for a reinvention.
That concern is being heard. At a web conference for industry members last Friday, the tourism board's chairman YK Pang told 1,500 attendees that Covid-19 “is in fact an ideal time for us to review and rethink Hong Kong’s position in the global tourism market and elevate service standard.”
Together with the travel trade, the board will map out the long-term development strategy for the tourism industry, he promised.
In an interview with Skift after the meeting, the tourism board's executive director, Dane Cheng, said discussions on “redefining and re-crafting the visitor experience” started even before the Covid-19 cri
