Hong Kong tourism chief pins hopes on COVID-19 recovery starting by July
09 April, 2020
The impact of COVID-19 on Hong Kong's tourism sector is unprecedented and metropolis can hope to get started on seeing things returning to normal by July, partly by trying to build up new markets, the top of the tourism board told Reuters.
The coronavirus crisis has paralysed the global financial hub's economy, that was already reeling from months of anti-government protests, with travel restrictions to curb the spread of infection grinding tourism to a halt.
Dane Cheng, executive director of the Hong Kong Tourism Board, said it would concentrate on boosting local consumer spending, attracting more mainland visitors and promoting the location to new markets such as India and Vietnam and Muslim tourists.
"The best we are able to hope for will be in June, July," Cheng said within an interview on Wednesday evening.
"By that point, you could see things resume on track. The border of Hong Kong reopening, air services resuming, that is the time for us to move on and start our recovery plan."
The tourism sector makes up about about 4.5 per cent of Hong Kong's gross domestic product and employs around 260,000 people.
Cheng was speaking hours prior to the government announced relief measures worth HK$137.5 billion (US$17.7 billion) to greatly help businesses and persons crippled by the coronavirus outbreak to remain on their feet.
In a bid to stamp out the disease COVID-19 due to the virus, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has recently imposed tough restrictions, including banning all tourist arrivals and prohibiting gatherings greater than four people.
The city's tourist arrivals plunged 96.4 % year-on-year in February to 199,123 visitors, the latest data shows, weighed against a 52.7 % year-on-year drop in January. The quantity of mainland visitors fell 97.8 % year-on-year in February to 98,804.
"This is something we've never seen before," Cheng said.
The drop in tourism helped to send retail sales plunging by an archive 44 % in February from a year earlier. Sales of jewellery, watches, clocks and valuable gifts, which rely heavily on mainland tourists, plunged 78.5 % year-on-year in February, weighed against a 41.5 % drop in January, underscoring the depth of the demand destruction.
"We have experience of ups and downs in Hong Kong during different crises. Obviously that one is the most extreme that people have ever encountered," Cheng said.
"I'd say that survival is important but let's have faith."
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