In a recent Danwei TV episode about Mainland tourists in Hong Kong, a photographer with an instant print stall on Kowloon’s waterfront promenade told us that there were fewer Mainland tourists in Hong Kong this year. We were inclined to attribute his comments on the fact that Mainland tourists are more and more likely to have digital cameras, and not need the services of street-side photographers.
However, the Economist’s City Guide to Hong Kong had this to say:
While cosmopolitan Hong Kongers tend to see themselves as a cut above their mainland compatriots, they are happy to milk mainlanders for their tourist dollars. But there was a 20% drop in visitors during the week-long May Day holiday, a peak-time for tourism. A spokeswoman for the Hong Kong Tourist Guides Association told the South China Morning Post that the number of guides employed during the May Day holiday had halved, and their overall earnings were down by 70-80%.
Many say this drop in tourists is caused by the behaviour of unscrupulous tour operators…
…At the same time, prices for hotels commonly used by mainlanders have risen between 20% and 40% in the last year.