With Hong Kong celebrating in 2012 the 15th anniversary of its reunification to Mainland China, tourism growth is more than ever depending of the “Mother Land”.
HONG-KONG- President Hu Jintao attended a gathering for the 15th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China and the swearing-in ceremony of the fourth-term government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Sunday morning. For locals, a huge gala dinner in a stadium as well as a giant firework were some of the festivities organized to celebrate June 30, 1997 when Britain officially hand-over a territory it reigned over for 154 years…
Chinese official media spoke a lot about the sense of optimism in the Special Administrative Region. But news agency Xinhua stressed also that China President Hu Jintao urged the just-inaugurated government of new Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, fourth head of the SAR since its handover. “It is imperative for the new SAR government to follow the principle of putting people first in its administration, accurately gauge public opinion and take concrete and effective measures to properly address issues concerning people’s livelihood and social tensions,” he said.
While the ceremony took place at the Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Centre with all “pump and circumstances”, the atmosphere was less festive in Hong Kong central districts. A 100,000 participants’ protest march was organised on Sunday for the anniversary as Hong-Kong residents wanted to voice their concern to China. In the last few years, Hong Kong locals have increasingly shown their discontent over numerous issues such as a high number of illegal immigrants from the Mainland, increasing wealth gap -at its highest since 1971- as well as rocketing prices for homes, up by 40% since 1997. A poll of nearly 900 long-term residents published in Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post mentioned that almost two-thirds of them believe that life has got worse since the handover.
While Hong Kong economy embraced completely the return to the Mainland, tourism to the SAR is now totally dependent from Chinese travellers. Latest figures communicated by the Hong Kong Tourism Board point out that total arrivals from January to May 2012 reached a new height of 18.7 million, up by 14.8% year-on-year. However, the growth comes mostly from Mainland China, with cumulative figures up by 21.3% over the same period of 2011. Residents from the Mainland represent now 69.9% of all arrivals to the former British colony. More worrying is the trend from other markets: Long-haul markets show a moderate growth of 2.6%, especially due to a decline in total arrivals from Australia and New Zealand (-0.7%) while short-haul markets posted only a 1.7% growth from January to May due to a collapse in total arrivals from Taiwan (-6.7%) and a rather small progression from South and Southeast Asia (+2.7%). Fifteen years after UK handover to the Mainland, Hong Kong confirms that it definitely turned into a fully China domestic destination.
Table: Growth in total arrivals to Hong Kong from January to May 2012 (in %)
(Source: HKTB)
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
