Current Attractions
Attractions that Hong Kong already has to lure tourists from all over the world to come to Hong Kong are:
There are so many attractions that it is difficult to list them all out. Basically just going any shopping district in Hong Kong such as Wanchai, Causeway Bay, will let tourists experience what Hong Kong culture is like.
What has Hong Kong done to enhance the tourism image?
HKTB has done many things to enhance the image of Hong Kong as a great tourist destination. During these few years, Hong Kong has done many things to attract tourists from all over the world.
For example: the numbers of large-scale fireworks have increased a lot (Chinese New Year, Chinese National Day, S.A.R. Establishment Day). In the past, there was only one large-scale firework in several years.
Quality Tourism Services Scheme – 2003 April
Global Tourism Revival Campaign – 2003 June
On 23rd June 2003, HKTB implemented the Global Tourism Revival Campaign (GTRC). This campaign was put into operation immediately upon Hong Kong’s delisting as a SARS affected area by World Health Organization. The main objective was to attract visitors through irresistible travel offers and take initiatives to maximize their spending. Through various special welcoming activities, tourists who visited Hong Kong would pass on positive words of Hong Kong’s hospitality overseas, so generating continued arrivals growth. Also, series of mega-events will happen in Hong Kong so that it’ll reinforce Hong Kong’s tourism image and keep Hong Kong in the international spotlight.
Key Points mentioned in the Progress Report on the GTRC include:
- 5 video news reels released to 368 stations in 69 countries
- 93 events confirmed between June and December 2003, expected to attract 200,000 international delegates.
- 26 international ship calls confirmed in Hong Kong for 2004 and 2006
- 100,000 hotel room nights sold under the “Be Our Guest” promotion
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6 new tours with appeal to individual travelers developed and added to regular tour portfolio
- Over 800,000 attendees at the first two mega-events
During April – June, the tourist arrivals are at its lowest point. However, since the delisting by WHO, HKTB immediately implemented its plans. As you can see, there is a great growth in total arrivals to Hong Kong during June – August period. The total number of arrivals in August even surpasses the total arrivals in January [before the SARS crisis].
During this period, Jackie Chan, a long-time Hong Kong Tourism Ambassador and international film celebrity, plays host in the television commercial and invites visitors worldwide to come to Hong Kong to enjoy the unique and memorable experiences the city has to offer.
Hong Kong - Live it, Love it! Global Premiere of HKTB Advertising Campaign – 2003 September
Mega Events Phase One of GTRC (23 June – 15 September) – Look at Appendix [Progress Report on the Global Tourism Revival Campaign [pg 2,9] for more information
Global Advertising Campaign (September 2003 onwards) – [pg 10 of progress report]
Future Developments
Overall, HKTB has done many things to boost Hong Kong’s image as a tourism district and also set up many things to improve tourist’s experience.
It is also estimated that additional spending by tourists will amount to $8.3 billion in Year 1, rising to $16.8 billion per annum in Year 20 and beyond – from Disneyland.
Some more details on future developments:
AsiaWorld-Expo
Offering more than 70,000 square metres of rental space, Asia World-Expo creates a dynamic new option for conventions, exhibitions, meetings and events. The complex consists of 10 halls, eight of which are interconnected, featuring over 66,000 square metres of ground level, column-free exhibition hall space. A 10,880-square-metre multipurpose hall can hold 13,500 people making it ideal for large events. Located beside the Hong Kong International Airport and on an Mass Transit Railway line, the facility will be easily accessible and demonstrates once again why so many event planners choose Hong Kong.
Completion date: December 2005
Tsim Sha Tsui Beautification - Waterfront Promenade
The popular Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront will receive a facelift turning it into an even more attractive, visitor friendly gathering place. Visitors will surely love the waterfront's stunning new appearance and enjoy the acclaimed Victoria Harbour and skyline of Hong Kong Island in an enhanced enironment.
Completion date: In phases from 2004 to 2008
Observation Wheel
A giant 75-metre-tall observation wheel on top of the 38-metre-high Ocean Terminal Extension building will provide a new way to enjoy the unique and incredible Hong Kong skyline and harbour. This signature attraction will provide stunning views with its 32 self-rotating capsules each carrying 12 people.
Target completion date: 2008
[Online news extract]
What does tourism bring to the society?
Money Flow
In the left diagram, it illustrates the Money Flow. The firms pay households for producing and the households use the income to consume goods and services.
The left diagram is the basic picture, but in reality [right diagram] households do not spend all their income on goods and services, some is saved up. This is an example of Withdrawal. Not all the income returns to the firm [like the left diagram], some are saved, used to pay taxes and imports.
Still looking at the right diagram, the taxes paid by the firms and households are used by the government – Government Spending/Expenditure. This is an example of Injection. Injections are addition income to firms which does not normally arise from the expenditure of households e.g. changes in investment, government spending or exports.
Tourist expenditures on goods and services are export spending. As seen in the right diagram, export spending flows back to the firms [injection]. Tourists spending are on goods and services such as hotels, sightseeing, native products, etc. Therefore, if Hong Kong attracts a lot of tourists, causing an increase in export spending, more money will flow to the firms and demand will increase. Firms will then need to increase their output to meet the rising demand. To increase their output, they might employ more people or employ skilled workers, who will evidently request for higher income. This will increase the amount of money to flow back to the households, so they can spend more money. The cycle is restarted. The export [tourist spending] will be used for consuming a good/service, then that good/service’s firm will use the money received on other goods and services, and so on, causing the Multiplier Effect on the national income which is many times more than the initial one.
Production Possibility Frontier
The better the tourism system, which results in more tourists coming, would cause more injection so firms will receive more money. As a result, they would have more money to put in practical uses, so it’ll shift the PPT [Production Possibility Frontier] outwards.
This means that the firm will be able to produce more. Although it doesn’t secure that the firm will use its resources effectively, but the production possibility frontier shows there are limits to production, so by shifting the curve outwards, it means the limit is also moved outwards [so the firm can produce more of the goods/services until it reaches the limit]. The limit can only be reached if the firm allocates its resources most efficiently.
However, injections apply not to only one firm, but all that are directly linked to tourism. Also, with the multiplier effect, it doesn’t only benefit the firms that are directly linked, even the indirectly ones are benefiting from it. So as a result, the society’s PPF will shift outwards. This indicates that the whole society will be able to produce more goods and services, in other words, the standards of living will rise.
Tourism Satellite Account
This Tourism Satellite Account illustrates what sectors the tourism contributes. According to the World Travel & Tourism Council 2004 Hong Kong Travel & Tourism Economic Research, the travel and tourism will generate 78,043 jobs and 2.0% to GDP (HKD 25.8 billion) [in the sectors that tourism affects directly]. However, tourism, as seen in the Tourism Satellite Account, touches all sectors of the economy, therefore its real impact is even greater. If including the sectors tourism indirectly affects, the total number of jobs creating is 292,759 jobs and 12.4% GDP (HKD 162.8).
Also, as more tourists come to Hong Kong and consuming goods, the demand for Hong Kong currency will increase, as seen in the supply and demand diagram, the demand curve shifts right, causing a rise in price.
Balance of Payment
The benefit of having a rise in price of the currency is that it’ll help balance of payment [payments and receipts between one country and all the other countries it trades with.]. If the price of the currency is increased, it means that Hong Kong is able to import same amount of goods/services using less money. Therefore, Hong Kong wouldn’t need to use as much money to import the same amount, while assuming the export stays the same, so in the long term [if more and more people continue to come to Hong Kong], export > import [money-wise].
Tourism can also enhance Hong Kong’s image. If Hong Kong can attract lots of tourists, not only tourists will come, even business people will come to Hong Kong and invest. Considering Hong Kong’s location, a city which is only around 4 hours flight away from about half the world’s population, is a prime location for business people to use Hong Kong as a place for exchange and attempt to enter Asian market. With a good tourism background, Hong Kong can create trust and people will not hesitate to come to Hong Kong to do business since Hong Kong is such a successful city (if Hong Kong has a good tourism image and good location).
General advantages of Tourism
- Creates jobs [directly and indirectly]
- Help balance of payments
- Can increase currency value
- Attract people to make investments in Hong Kong
Hong Kong Airport
However, tourism doesn’t only give positive externalities. It also gives negative externalities. Pollution is one of them. An example of this is the construction of Chek Lap Kok Airport (Hong Kong International Airport). The construction obviously created a lot of pollution. To build the airport site, they formed land reclamations, which damaged the ecology of the surround marine life. Noise and Air pollution affected people who lived on Lantau Island. A lot vegetation was removed in order to create more free space for the construction. The airport will also increase air travel, causing more planes to fly from one place to another, as a result, world pollution will increase.
Garbage
Tourism also brings garbage. Evidently, the more visitors come to Hong Kong, more rubbish will be produced. Although majority of the rubbish are not because of tourists, they do still contribute. These pollution and wastes not only affect us as a society, but also ruins the image of Hong Kong as a tourist destination. Would you want to come to a city filled with pollution and wastes? Clearly, it repels tourists.
Negative Externalities produced by Individual Visit Scheme
Recently, the individual visit scheme enabled people from Mainland China to enter Hong Kong without any restrictions. This caused many problems. Many people come to Hong Kong to work illegally, jobs such as construction workers is a popular choice. This affects our unemployment rate, because Mainlanders come to Hong Kong and take our jobs illegally.
Another problem caused by the individual visit scheme [as said in a RTHK TV show recently] is that Mainlanders come to Hong Kong and give birth in Hong Kong hospitals. This will turn the baby into a Hong Kong citizen. A sudden surge of demand for medical workers [creating a shortage of medical workers] would make the health system in Hong Kong poor. Since there are so many people from the Mainland coming to Hong Kong to give birth, that means birth rates of Hong Kong increases [since those babies are still considered Hong Kong citizen]. With so many new births, the Hong Kong government doesn’t know whether they would stay in Hong Kong and take education [if they do, education system will suffer as well with the sudden surge].
Increased tourism brings traffic congestions as well. Since many tourists come in groups and not individually, they would use travel buses. A large number of travel buses would cause heavy traffic congestions, causing problems to Hong Kong people who use the transport system to go to one place to another. This may cause disruptions to people’s work and lives.
Inflation
One of the main problems of tourism might cause is inflation. As the tourists coming increases, the more they need to consume and thus, demand rises and prices rise on goods and services.
If inflation happens, the people with jobs will request for higher income/wages. Although employers might increase the income/wages of some skilled workers, they would most probably sack some of the workers, as a result, potentially causing unemployment.
However, according to the statistics provided by the government [www.info.gov.hk],
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Although deflation brings good points, it causes some problems. Deflation will cause people to save up and invest instead of spending it on goods and services.
Nevertheless, according to these two graphs on the previous page, which also was obtained from the Hong Kong government’s websites, there is an overall rise in consumption [graph on left] compared to the years before. Looking at the graph on the right, which shows retail sales, you can clearly see that there is a rise retail sales compared to the years before, even though deflation is happening [according to the “Implicit price deflator of GDP” graph on the previous page].
Questionnaire Results and Analysis:
I carried out a questionnaire in the Peak and Stanley (both popular tourist districts). A total of 50 people [19 locals and 31 tourists] took part. Not 100% of the people who participated in this questionnaire are tourists. With some locals taking part in this questionnaire could also obtain some of the local’s views on the overall Hong Kong tourism. [See questionnaire in Appendix]
My Opinions-
In my opinion, I think tourism provides great economic advantages for Hong Kong. Thus, Hong Kong government and HKTB has put a lot of effort and money on enhancing Hong Kong’s image and promote Hong Kong as Asia’s World City, in other words promoting Hong Kong as a tourist destination. Hong Kong is a place which survives on tertiary industries, therefore tourism is vital for the economic development of Hong Kong. With upcoming tourist attractions like Disney Land, Hong Kong will continue advancing towards a real Asia’s World City. However, for Hong Kong to continue improving, the government must be careful how it allocates its resources and what to do with them. The government must not [or at least at the minimum] of damaging the environment and must keep a close eye on the health system to prevent any epidemic such as SARS to cause severe damage on the image of Hong Kong.
Conclusion
To conclude, Hong Kong needs Tourism to survive. Tourism brings many benefits to the economy as a whole. Through the multiplier effect, the outcome is many times of the initial injection. Since tourism benefits about all parts of the economy [directly and indirectly], it definitely contributes to the standards of living. With tourism contributing 12.4% of our GDP and creating around 292,759 jobs, it must be an asset Hong Kong could not look lightly upon. However, there are many international competitions such as Beijing and Shanghai. China has concentrated in improving the image of Beijing [especially for the 2008 Beijing Olympics] and Shanghai, therefore attracting tourists to there. This will have a great impact on Hong Kong as a tourist destination. Since the price of goods and services in China are relatively cheaper than Hong Kong, so more people will prefer to go to Beijing and/or Shanghai. This will cause a shift in demand curve to the left because the demand of Hong Kong as a tourist destination has decreased.
In order to keep the demand for Hong Kong as a tourist destination constant or even shift the demand curve to the right, Hong Kong must keep its good image as Asia’s World City and an Events Capital of Asia to attract more tourists to visit Hong Kong. Tourism is beyond doubt an economic pillar of Hong Kong.
Bibliography
Websites:
http://partnernet.hktb.com/
http://www.tourism.gov.hk/
http://www.wttc.org/ -- PDF file of WTTC 2004 Tourism Satellite Accounts: Regional Reports: Hong Kong
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/hong_kong
http://www.discoverhongkong.com
http://www.info.gov.hk
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