Billion dollar sports events boost Hong Kong’s coffers

It is said that sport promotes a healthy body, a healthy mind…and a healthy economy. In Hong Kong’s case that is worth about HK$51 billion (US$6.5 billion), or 1.5 per cent of our $3.4 trillion (US$ 434.2 billion) gross domestic product.

On top of that, it provides for about 84,000 jobs, according to figures released by the Census and Statistics Department.

Already Hong Kong draws on a fine reputation for hosting international sporting events, such as the Rugby Sevens, ATP and WTA tennis championships, the LIV golf tournament, equestrian events, snooker championships to name just a few. Every month The Leisure and Cultural Services Department’s calendar is filled with sporting events, both local and international, to keep sporting facilities fully booked.

Due to its high class sports facilities, low tax regime, location as the center of Asia and lifestyle appeal, Hong Kong has attracted super stars like snooker champions Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump and Jimmy White to take up residence here under the government’s Quality Migrant Admission Scheme (QMAS). The Scheme is designed to attract highly skilled or talented persons to settle in Hong Kong to enhance the city's economic competitiveness. Applicants are not required to have secured an offer of local employment before applying for entry or being admitted to Hong Kong for settlement under the Scheme. Accordingly, the trend is continuing as high-profile figures continue to join the city's registry. More than 100 active and retired international athletes have relocated to Hong Kong under these programs in recent years, and officials continue to process applications from prominent global sports icons.

A number of sports events in Hong Kong have been given an “M” (for Mega) ranking by the Major Sports Events Committee for their ability to draw in large international followers, thus adding to the city’s tourism coffers. The ranking is for world-level events and goes with dollar-for-dollar matching grants from the government with funding based entirely on the event’s quality, media coverage and economic tourism potential.

Events which have received the “M” rating, and thus government financial support, includes the ATP and WTA tennis tournaments, rapid and blitz chess championships, international dragon boat races, volleyball nations league, the international invitation horse racing event, fencing world championships and, of course, the famed Rugby Sevens, Rugby Sevens which last year generated some HK$780 million (US $100 million) to the city’s economy.

All “M” events are a magnet for drawing foreign visitors to Hong Kong. For example, the Rugby Sevens earlier this year drew in about 150,000 foreign visitors and rising Filipina tennis star Alex Eala, who has taken the US open by storm, filled the 15,000 seat Wimbledon Centre Court with her fans, many of whom are expected to follow her to Hong Kong for the Prudential WTA Open in November.

Hong Kong’s HK$30 billion Kai Tak Sports Park with its 50,000-seat stadium drew 2.4 million spectators in its first year of operation. The main stadium is built to serve as a multi-purpose mega-venue. Overcoming Hong Kong's unpredictable summer weather it is equipped with a retractable roof and advanced climate control, to host premier sports tournaments alongside massive pop concerts.

Hong Kong’s role in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) provides an ideal opportunity for greater interplay between the nine cities in Guangdong and the Special Economic Zones of Hong Kong and Macao. Prime examples would be the 15th National Games and historic cross-border marathons and cycling races, where athletes seamlessly travel across Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao. The lead for cross-border sport is being taken by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, which has made major proposals in our first Five Year Plan for Economic and Social Development, by transforming the GBA into an international equestrian and equine sports hub.

The club envisions a seamless multi-destination racing tourism circuit that links its world-class facilities in Sha Tin and Happy Valley with the Conghua Racecourse in Guangzhou. To further solidify this ecosystem, the proposals suggest expanding Hong Kong's successful disease-free zone management and biosecurity protocols to other regions in the mainland, such as Xinjiang.

Under this equine hub framework, the club also advocates establishing a World Organization for Animal Health collaboration center in Hong Kong and advancing institutional connectivity by expanding the mutual recognition of veterinary qualifications across the border.

Both the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Culture and Tourism Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area gives a fresh impetus to the development of the tourism industry within the GBA. With the platform of the Tourism Federation of Cities in the GBA, the Tourism Commission has been actively fostering co-operation with the tourism authorities of the Macao Special Administrative Region and the nine Chinese Mainland cities in the GBA in developing more “multi-destination” tourism products.

As the consultation scope of the Five-Year Plan has been wide to incorporate most of Hong Kong’s society, tourism leaders including event organizers, travel agents, hotels and airlines have been promoting an integrated culture-sports-tourism synergy as a total package in fostering tourism to Hong Kong.

By working together as an industry and with our neighbors, Hong Kong becomes an even more attractive sports destination offering packages for foreign visitors to stay longer in this Pearl of the Orient.

Mark Pinkstone

** 博客文章文責自負,不代表本公司立場 **

Hong Kong, the world’s freest economy, will be host to some 500 delegates attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Finance Ministers’ meeting (FMM) today (Tuesday).

It will be the forerunner to the 33rd APEC Economic Leaders’ meeting and the APEC CEO Summit, hosted by President Xi Jinping and attended by US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Shenzhen in November.

And in between these meetings will be the annual World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings in Bangkok at the end of the month. A very busy time for the world’s economic powers, many of whom are struggling to make ends meet.

Yesterday, Chief Executive John Lee welcomed APEC delegate and President of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) Mrs Zou Jiayi to Hong Kong, noting that AIIB’s continued use of Hong Kong’s strengths as an international finance hub, and its mature and comprehensive bond market to connect with international investors.

The AIIB is expected to open an office in Hong Kong soon, serving both financing and operational functions. This will demonstrate Hong Kong’s role as a gateway connecting the country and the world.

Some 1,000 delegates at the Shenzhen meetings will see first hand how a sparsely populated farmland of five decades ago has been transformed into a thriving city of the future with a population of 18 million.

The series of meetings of the world’s leading economies highlight the 2026 APEC China Year, running under the overall theme "Building an Asia-Pacific Community to Prosper Together".

Finance chiefs and high-ranking senior officials include representatives from key observing bodies, such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank, who will join representatives of all 21 APEC member economies in the high-level dialogues at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre today and for the next two days. China’s finance ministry will chair the meeting in Hong Kong, while the city authorities handle the event’s logistics, such as arranging the venue, transport and accommodation.

Hong Kong has long been recognised as an events capital for hosting major international conferences, and has extensive experience in managing media affairs and promotional activities for such events.

There will also be special tours and cultural events for the visiting spouses. The city will leverage the FMM programme arrangements with incorporate elements of Chinese culture, as well as the unique characteristics of Hong Kong. This will include the venue set-up (including exhibition booths around the conference area) and the design of side events (including welcoming dinner, cultural performances, and site visits) to enable participants to experience and interact with these cultural elements first-hand, thereby effectively telling good stories of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong will surely take advantage of such a captive audience by demonstrating how it became the world’s freest economy announced recently by Canada’s Fraser Institute.

It will also be an opportunity to debunk false statements by some of the attending delegates that Hong Kong is dead. Instead, the delegates will see a vibrant city with a sound five-year plan to ensure continuity of its policies in the years to come.

These policies will include the massive Northern Metropolis project along the Shenzhen boundary. And when they cross the river to attend further APEC meetings they will marvel at the scale of high tech development driving China’s economy.

Artificial intelligence (AI), which is surely to be a key topic among APEC members in this highly charged environment, is key technology for enhancing industrial competitiveness and strengthening economic growth. Making effective use of AI as a valuable tool for innovation requires active coordination and adoption of both the public and private sectors. It is a subject discussed at previous APEC meetings, which found that to enable innovation and adoption, it is important to ensure that regulatory regimes are conducive to AI development and deployment.

Economies have been encouraged to ensure that such regimes are fit-for-purpose and safeguard consumer protection, which is safe, secure, reliable and accessible for all. The sustained development of the AI ecosystem requires the cultivation and strengthening of skilled AI talent.

In this context, the finance ministries can play an important role in supporting the AI ecosystem and creating the appropriate incentives for the market. This may include tax incentives, promoting AI-related industries, partnering with the private sector, or supporting investment in enabling infrastructure and AI talent development.

Hong Kong is known for its openness and minimum regulations for foreign businesses setting up shop here, attributes recorded in the 2026 Fraser Report. It is a role model for others to follow.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will skip the Hong Kong gathering to focus on the follow up APEC meetings in Shenzhen. Instead, Treasury Undersecretary for International Affairs Erin Browne is to head the U.S. delegation. It is hoped that Browne (in Hong Kong), Bessent and Trump (in Shenzhen) will listen and not preach to their APEC colleagues. For a country, that is forty trillion US dollars in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy, it is in no position to lecture anybody about how to run their economy.