The quest of Hong Kong – to regain the crown of a top tourist destination

Mark Pinkstone/Former Chief Information Officer of HK government

Hong Kong is clawing back to its former crowning glory as a world tourism destination with preliminary arrival figures for 2024 showing a healthy 40 million visitors, a 31 per cent increase compared with the previous year.

But it still has a long way to catch up with the world leader, France, which received 80 million visitors last year.

According to the Hong Kong Tourism Bureau, Hong Kong welcomed about the 40 million visitors, the majority of whom came naturally from the mainland (domestic tourism) and Southeast Asia (international market) which showed a 44 per cent increase over the previous year. And, collectively, they added some HK$207.3 billion to the city’s coffers.

As Hong Kong enters the Year of the Snake, the future looks bright and with a modest 15 per cent expected increase the city can expect some 46 million visitors spending $240 billion on hotels, tours and shopping this year.

In days, not so long gone by, Hong Kong was one of the world’s leading tourist destinations. It was known as the Pearl of the Orient and was a mixture of the East meeting the West. With English being the lingua franca of the tourism industry coupled with the provision of excellent service and efficiency, Hong Kong became the destination of choice. In 1965, it received 65.5 million visitors, the highest on record. In May 2023, Hong Kong was hailed as the Most Popular Cultural Tourism Destination at the Guangzhou International Travel Fair 2023.

The most popular attractions in Hong Kong are the Peak as Hong Kong’s number one tourist destination featuring the Peak Tower and the historic Peak Tram; Tian Tan Buddha (Big Buddha), as a major attraction on Lantau Island, along with the Po Lin Monastery and the fishing village of Tai O; the Hong Kong Skyline along Victoria Harbour, with nicely developed promenades and leisure parks on both sides; the Star Ferry with over 24,000 reviews; the Pandas at Ocean Park; and Hong Kong Disneyland as one of the world’s most beautiful theme parks, ranked 7th most popular globally by Forbes. And, according to Time Out magazine, Hong Kong is the world’s safest city, Hollywood Road is the world’s second coolest street, and Bar Leone is the best bar in Asia.

Then came 2019, Hong Kong became the target of insurgence attacks inspired by foreign powers. Riots broke out in the streets, and there were arson attacks and killings. No one wanted to visit Hong Kong. The flames of insurgency were fuelled by foreign governments advising their nationals not to visit Hong Kong for safety reasons. Quicky on the heels of the riots came COVID-19, and the world was in shut-down mode. By 2021, tourism was virtually obliterated with only 9,000 visitors and 60,000 the following year. Recovery started in 2023 with 23.34 million visitors.

As Hong Kong has no natural resources to sustain its viability, tourism has become a cornerstone of its economy. Another is trade.

It is therefore essential that the entire Hong Kong community extend a hand of welcome to our guests, for they are providing our bread and butter. Indifference towards our northern guests or towards various religious groups should not be tolerated. As a direct result of the problems of 2019-22, hundreds, if not thousands, of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) have closed due to lack of business and their shops remain desolate among the survivors. The number of corporate bankruptcies (the number of winding-up orders) in Hong Kong in 2021 increased by 23.93 percent to 290, and a further increase by 3.44 percent to 300 in 2022. We have much to thank our visitors for: survival.

In his policy address last year, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said the government would release plans to invigorate the tourism industry. And in December, it did.

Known as Development Blueprint for Hong Kong’s Tourism Industry 2.0 (Blueprint 2.0), the document presents three key messages – that Hong Kong is an international tourist city with the advantage of being backed by the motherland; that everyone can contribute to the development of tourism in Hong Kong; and strengthen our traditional tourism advantages including world-class tourist attractions, cuisine, urban managements and transport systems.

The average length of stay by inbound visitors is approximately 3.6 nights, with the highest period of stay being 6.5 nights in 2021. Part of the new strategy will be to entice them to stay longer by providing value-added services and attractions.

It is a plan put together by the industry for the industry under an initiative by the government and with research input by the think tank, Our Hong Kong Foundation. The thoroughness that went into the Blueprint 2.0, including more than 1,000 suggestions from more than 110 trade organisations indicates the passion in which the industry and the government can work together for the betterment of Hong Kong and its people.

Mark Pinkstone

** The blog article is the sole responsibility of the author and does not represent the position of our company. **

Hong Kong is facing a dilemma as more locals are spending their dollars outside of the city than what the visitors are bringing in.

Relaxed visa/permit restrictions for locals and foreign residents alike is making it easier for travel to the mainland while inbound traffic crossing the boundary is low budget and spending less on accommodation and food.

Tourism is an important pillar for Hong Kong’s economy. In pre-COVID times, tourism accounted for about four per cent of the territory’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and provided for about six per cent of total employment.

In Hong Kong’s heydays, the city saw about 65 million tourists in 2018, of which 51 million came from the mainland. It was boom time for retailers and restaurants. Long queues of mainland shoppers would line the streets along Canton Road and elsewhere waiting to buy luxury items from Gucci, Prada, Tiffany’s and other high-end stores which set up shop in Hong Kong to tap this lucrative market.

Today many restaurants and retail outlets are closing down, especially in the boundary towns of Sheung Shui and Yuen Long. The market is no longer there, and high rental costs make it almost impossible to survive.

During the 2025/2026 festive season, Hong Kong saw a 25.6 per cent rise in inbound trips on New Year’s Day 2026 (664,338 trips), but this was still countered by a massive 515,954 outbound exits on the same day.

Winston Yeung, chair of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants & Related Trades, told local media that business was sluggish during the Christmas holiday, with some restaurant owners calling it “the slowest business at Christmas over the past 10 years.”

Unfortunately, the local market is not propping up the tourism outlets. Instead, the locals are traveling in large numbers to Shenzhen and Macau and other parts of China for day trips or extended holidays, thereby providing a leakage in the local economy.

While Hong Kong received more than an estimated 45 million visitors last year, more than about 100 million departures were recorded by the Immigration Department of locals leaving Hong Kong by plane, train or bus mainly to the mainland (75 per cent), and to other major Asian destinations.

Hong Kong has 320 hotels offering 92,907 rooms, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board. Despite mainlanders’ choice of more budget accommodation, occupancy rates for the hotel industry remained high at 88 per cent last year. The major hotels are not affected by the change in mainlanders’ preferences as they rely more on the affluent international tourist, visiting Hong Kong for business, conventions or holidays.

Property developer, Caldwell Banker Richard Ellis (CBRE) says Hong Kong’s hospitality market currently presents various investment-ready assets including rare investment opportunities for upper upscale and luxury hotels. These high-end properties are particularly attractive due to their resilience, as they are less reliant on Chinese group travelers and enjoy sustained spending power among affluent individual travelers and international visitors. This makes them attractive for investors seeking stable returns in a dynamic market.

To encourage locals to spend more at home and at the same time provide a bonus for tourists, Hong Kong has organised a series of mega events, many held in the new sports stadium on the site of the old Kai Tak airport in Kowloon. Traditional events in 2026 will include the French May Arts festival in March, Hong Kong Book Fair in July, Hong Kong performing Arts Expo in October, the World Snooker Grand Prix in February, and, of course, the international dragon boat races in June.

Blockbusters will include BlackPink World tour in January, the Hong Kong marathon, which draws in runners and their supports from around the world, and the Hong Kong Tennis Open also in January.

That is good for the inbound and outbound tourists alike. But more needs to be done to tip the tourism scales to a surplus for Hong Kong’s economy to grow at a faster pace. As the saying goes charity starts at home, so it is up to us as local residents who have reaped the benefits of the city to spend more in local restaurants and retail outlets than spend it elsewhere. Support local enterprises. After all, the restaurants in Hong Kong are ranked among the best in the world and are tax free as against a value-added tax applied to restaurants and shops in the mainland.