More visitors but HK worries about S'pore
http://www.straitstimes.com/Prime%2B...ry_445908.html
October 24, 2009 Saturday
More visitors but HK worries about S'pore
Imminent opening of S'pore theme parks rattles some
By Shu-Ching Jean Chen, For The Straits Times
HONG KONG: Warned a recent headline in the mass-circulation newspaper The Oriental Daily: 'Singapore's tourism theme parks to make a killing off Hong Kong tourists'.
The Sing Pao newspaper splashed a whole page with bold Chinese characters that told a similar story. 'Singapore's grab for tourists, a brazen challenge to Hong Kong', the wording went.
Perhaps The Sun said it best. It described the scheduled opening of Universal Studios Singapore next year as 'the shaving of Hong Kong's eyebrows' - a local metaphor for public mortification.
No matter how the papers put it, one thing is certain. Hong Kong's tourism industry is worried.
The concerns were stoked by a marketing campaign currently going on here conducted by Resorts World at Sentosa and Universal Studios Singapore. There is added unease because not many were aware until recently about the imminent opening of Singapore's new theme parks.
Mr Paul Tse, a legislator who represents the tourism industry, said: 'We have been worried about Hong Kong's tourism all the time, but all these (developments) alarm us even further.
'If we don't work harder, a crisis will come,' he said. 'The message is clear: Singapore is pulling ahead and Hong Kong is being left behind.'
Mr Tse and other observers, lament that Hong Kong has no new tourist attractions in the works except the scheduled expansions of Disneyland and Ocean Park. It has been three years since the opening of its latest major attraction, Ngong Ping 360 - a 5.7km, 25-minute cable car ride over its largest island, Lantau, which has not been a great success.
A proposal announced last week by the city's leader Donald Tsang to develop a new cruise terminal near its abandoned old airport in Kowloon has been called ill-conceived for not taking into consideration the absence of tourist destinations nearby.
Even if it is built, it would open in 2012, a year after the new international cruise terminal at Marina South would have started operation.
So far, these worries seem misplaced. Hong Kong's tourism has held up well, due to mainland Chinese tourists who make up more than 60 per cent of its market.
According to China's Tourism Bureau, 7.25 million mainlanders visited Hong Kong in the first five months this year, 7.4 per cent higher than the same period last year.
As one of its top four pillar industries, tourism accounts for more than 3 per cent of Hong Kong's gross domestic product, even without including receipts from related industries such as retail and restaurant.
The H1N1 flu scare that prompted the government to quarantine an entire hotel for several days in May scared off potential visitors, but business has been recovering.
Australian-born John Ap, associate professor at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said he sees competition coming not just from Singapore, but also Taiwan and possibly China itself when the mainland starts to catch up. 'Hong Kong's tourism industry has been expanding,' he said. 'But you have to ask: What's going to happen in the next 10 to 15 years?'
Last week, he even took his class of 25 students to Singapore for a close-up look at what is happening there. They gave Sentosa 7.1 out of an overall satisfaction rating of 10.
As for Hong Kong, Mr Tse has suggested a plan that could benefit both it and Singapore. Calling his proposal a new tale of two cities, he said, with both governments taking the lead, the two could pool resources and promote themselves as joint destinations in a bargain packaged tour.
'We compete, but we can also work together to attract tourists,' stressed Mr Tse.
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