OBSERVATION: Hong Kong’s tourism industry has been battered due to social unrest and might require new solutions for the future to attract more broad market segments.
SOLUTION: Re-imagine the future tourism for Hong Kong through the creation of a long-term vision, leveraging the city’s existing strengths, establishing new initiatives, and upgrading the city’s infrastructure.
Countless visitors have remarked that there is nowhere on earth that is quite like Hong Kong. One of the most-visited places on the planet, Hong Kong’s geographical location, unique history, culture, colonial past and amazing adaptability can be further leveraged to provide a wide range of tourism opportunities to attract broad market segments from across the world.
While Mainland Chinese visitors currently, and will likely continue to dominate Hong Kong’s tourism scene, catering to a single source market is often risky. Hong Kong’s past moniker as a “shopping paradise” may have faded into the mists of time as the city grapples with how it should now reposition itself. Tourism destinations often need to reinvent themselves, especially after periods of poor performance, and Hong Kong is no exception.
Architect and hospitality consultant Thomas Schmidt, AIA of Sepia Design Consultants Limited ponders a few initiatives that might diversify tourism and reposition Hong Kong over the years to come:
TOURISM IDEAS – ACCOMMODATION:
HOTELS:
Hong Kong boasts some of the finest hotels in the world, many of which have eye-watering room rates and have enjoyed record levels of high occupancy over the long term. While the city has a wide range of quality of lodging products, there is often a shortfall of affordable options for the budget traveler. Could new targeted room products be created throughout the territory?
- Budget Hotels: Could additional affordable high-quality hotels be rolled out within the guesthouse and budget sector?
- Capsule Hotels: Found throughout Japan; could this space-saving concept of microhotels and individual sleeping pods be imported for use in Hong Kong?
- Hostels: Could there be an affordable urban product to offer backpackers as an alternative to Chungking Mansions?
- Guesthouses: Could new affordable rural guesthouses be created in the New Territories through the redevelopment of abandoned villages?
RESORTS:
Despite Hong Kong’s extensive coastline and extensive number of small islands, traditional resort hotels throughout the territory are surprisingly few in number.
- Island Resorts: Could new boutique island resort hotels be developed on some of the smaller outlying islands? Could these be positioned as “urban getaways,” encourage local staycations and keep tourism dollars within the city? These could range from simple waterfront guesthouses, to more elaborate exclusive self-sufficient beach resorts that occupy an entire small island.
- Urban Resorts: Could more “urban resorts” be created that similarly cater to visitors as well as residents? Can more environments created in the middle of the city to escape the hustle and bustle?
- Rural Resorts: Could vast tracts of land in the New Territories be sensitively redeveloped to provide a series of unique rural resorts?
- Beach Resorts: Could a new destination resort at Guishan Island finally provide Hong Kong with elusive beach resorts that open onto beautiful white sand beaches? Or will Hong Kongers be forced to travel to Hainan Island for this kind of experience?
NEW LODGING TYPES:
Major “disruptors” to the traditional tourism lodging industry, which include Airbnb, Couch Surfing, and other systems of private accommodation, has yet to be clearly addressed by the Hong Kong authorities.
- Airbnb: Is Airbnb technically legal in Hong Kong? Sydney, Australia has developed a set of rules that sensibly limit, but allow Airbnb — could Hong Kong adopt such a strategy? This important category of accommodation must be addressed sooner or later by the Government — and the time is now.
- Couch Surfing: Could this method of accommodation be made more acceptable to residents, management companies and the Government?
VILLAGE REDEVELOPMENT:
The sprawling New Territories of Hong Kong could be described as a chaotic mess of agricultural land, existing and abandoned villages, brownfield sites and illegal dumping sites. While there are picturesque areas, other areas resemble third-world conditions and arguably shatter Hong Kong’s tourism image. The widely-criticized “Small House Policy” further complicates the situation relative to land ownership, social issues, and redevelopment potential. Could the New Territories be a viable area for new tourism accommodation?
- Small House Policy: Could the Small House Policy be amended and a bold new master plan provided for the New Territories relative to tourism? Could many of Hong Kong’s dilapidated “lost villages” be rebuilt and be repositioned for use as retreats for extended stays by both residents and tourists? How might existing villages be transformed?
- Farmstays: Could vast areas of the New Territories be “cleaned up” to provide small-scale agricultural production coupled with farmstays and guesthouses for both residents and visitors to participate in traditional Southern China agricultural practices, with farm-to-table restaurants? Could local resident staycations be promoted by enabling Hong Kong’s children to have a more immersive educational experience to learn about where their food actually comes from — instead of a brief two-hour school field trip?
- Retreats: There is always a demand for corporate, private and even spiritual retreats which allow Hong Kong residents to escape the noise and chaos to concentrate and focus in a tranquil environment. Could redeveloped villages fulfill this demand?
- Backpacker Hostels: While there are existing hostels sprinkled through obscure corners of the territory, could more hostels be created that cater to international backpackers and local school groups?
- Trailwalking Huts: Could some of the abandoned villages along the famed MacLehose Trail be redeveloped into a system of Trailwalking Huts to cater to multi-day walks? This is common in England’s Lake District, Nepal’s trekking areas and countless other areas through the world, could this be accomplished in Hong Kong?
- Grassroots Hoteliers: Could the development of village areas result in a new wave of “grassroots hoteliers,” which improves tourism in the New Territories while helping to alleviate poverty and improving Hong Kong’s social ills? Could more lodging tourism dollars trickle directly down to local land owners, instead of being directed to the city’s largest developers and hotel owners? Could it be time to explore wealth redistribution within the tourism sector and reduce the city’s shameful GINI coefficient?
While the above ideas are by no means an exhaustive listing, it is hoped they will provide food for thought as to how Hong Kong might reinvent itself relative to future tourism.