Hong Kong has faced a decade of tourist declines. Is it ready for a comeback?
The United States isn’t the only country staring down a decline in international visitors. Hong Kong, once a hotspot for big-spending international jetsetters, has faced years of declines in visitor numbers.
It’s not just the significant COVID-19 restrictions in the city—an autonomous region of the People’s Republic of China—that lingered longer than many other parts of the world. From 2014, the city has been the site of a series of protests as China tests the limits of the “One Country, Two Systems” policy meant to be in place in the former British colony for 50 years from the 1997 handover.
Financial firms—once the economic bedrock of a city that for decades served as a bridge between Mainland China and the West are leaving, and international tourism spending is growing slower than projected, still not fully recovered to 2019 levels. Those traffic drops have largely been replaced by visitors from Mainland China, who often daytrip from nearby cities and spend less than tourism promoters might prefer.
While the restrictions and protests have subsided, Hong Kong is now fighting for international tourism dollars in a crowded market. A massive sports park hosting major sporting events and headliner music acts still competes with aggressive tourism promotion from regional capitals like Bangkok and Singapore, and the loosening of some restrictions on travel to Mainland Chinese cities also siphons visitors away. In several Mainland cities, U.S. citizens can now visit for up to ten days, visa-free, as long as they’re transiting to another city outside China.
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Hong Kong tourism officials are hoping for a resurgence in big-spending, multi-day staying international travelers to boost the city’s economy.
What Is Visiting Hong Kong Like Now?
I recently spent four nights in Hong Kong as part of hometown airline Cathay Pacific’s inaugural nonstop flight from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW). Although it operates an intercontinental hub at Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok International airport, Hong Kong-bound traffic still makes up a significant share of the airline’s business, and they’re introducing new products, like the introduction of the new Aria Suite in Business Class, to attract travelers.
From my enormous guestroom at the Rosewood Hong Kong in Kowloon, I have stories-high views of the famous Hong Kong Harbor, which I’ll never look out at and not feel like I’m in a Bond film. Hong Kong is also an immensely “foodie” city, and this is probably the first hotel I’ve stayed in anywhere in the world with two Michelin-starred restaurants on-site (out of ten!).
The hotel’s two Michelin-starred joints include The Legacy House, where the expertly braised kobe beef main and mango soup dessert stand out for me, and I learn that “not too sweet” is the highest praise a Hong Konger can give to any dessert (you might even find that phrase emblazoned on a t-shirt or two here). At the Indian restaurant CHAAT, we graze on caviar-topped oyster panipuri (fried dough balls) presented on a dry ice cloud, before tackling a succulent lobster curry I still dream about.
Cocktails are hot in Hong Kong, too. At the hotel’s “cocktail parlour” Darkside, I try a potable from the “Timeless Tales” menu, which celebrates spots in Kowloon. Mine’s the Kai Tak, named for the site of the city’s old airport and original home of Cathay Pacific, which is fittingly served in a cup shaped like a jet engine nacelle.
Elsewhere, the city barely feels touristy, aside from right on the harbor. In front of the Rosewood, plenty of Mainland visitors crowd the waterfront for selfies with harbor view (a tour guide points out Mainlanders can be distinguished from locals for eye-catching fashion ensembles in contrast to the Hong Kongers’ more muted uniform of label-less black, gray, or white, and perhaps a backpack).
Across the harbor on Hong Kong Island, it’s pretty quiet. On a Sunday, we wander through groups of domestic workers from the Philippines making the most of their precious day off hanging out in friend groups on squares of cardboard on the sidewalk to poke through street stalls in search of secondhand treasures like vintage watches (some working, some not), stacks of carved, polished jade, and numerous copies of the Little Red Book.
Of course, that’s in between stops into more cocktail parlours like Kinsman, where my cocktail has milky sparkling oolong, lychee honey, and pineapple rum among other things, or buzzy Bar Leone, where my Boogie Nights cocktail is a brew of tequila, sour pineapple, passionfruit, and hot sauce. I also do rounds of Michelin-starred restaurants that have partnered with Cathay Pacific for onboard or lounge catering, including goldfish-shaped dim sum at Duddell’s, fancy Frenchie caramelized onion tarts and Hong Kong-style roast chicken at Louise, and crispy Peking Duck at Mott 32.
It’s not all fancy, though. Another day is spent wandering through diners in Yau Ma Tei in Kowloon. We sample different flavors of egg tart and minty iced mochas at Tai On before an odoriferous stroll through the Kowloon fruit market during durian season yields several toothpicked samples of dragonfruit and an offer of a shot of plum wine. The Tin Hau temple is a typical haze of incense indoors, but my pick is the gift shop next door selling very attractively priced mini replicas of lion dance heads (buy them in pairs, the guide says, so they don’t get lonely—pairs are also prized in Chinese numerology for balance and symmetry).
Whether luxury-tiered or more approachably priced, there was much more to see and do in Hong Kong than I could fit into a visit of a few days. But the thing I noticed most about Hong Kong was that everywhere seemed to give off the energy of a city in waiting. Waiting for the visitors, it has more than enough infrastructure to accommodate. Waiting for the luxe hotels and the top-line eateries, and the cocktail parlours to fill out again. Waiting for new initiatives to local standards like milk tea (and a more recent riff—milk tea mixed with espresso), egg tarts, and cold fruit soups.
While destinations around the world cope with the effects of too many tourists and too little infrastructure, Hong Kong is there, waiting.
