Economic Impact of Tourism in Hong Kong

Economic Impact of Tourism in Hong Kong

INTRODUCTION

Hong Kong(HK) is an international city which is called as The Pearl of the Orient because the night view in HK is the shiniest one in the world. This is a place as small as a ball but attracting people from the all over want to visit HK, know more about HK and spend time in this “shoppers Paradise” (William Ho, Sales Trainer & Coach, 2002). According to a large amount of tourism, the second large industry in HK is from the tourism. The article first presents a background of HK especially the economic system, infrastructure, what places or thing attract people come to visit and most important is the tourism in HK and their relationship to economics and the society impact or any drawback as well.

CONTENT

Background of Hong Kong

HK is the Southernmost of the Chain. HK was the UK colony between 1839-1997 and return to Chain after 1997 and become the high degree of autonomy city and the full name is Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (HKSAR). Furthermore, the official language is Cantonese and English, which means this is better to handle people from all over the world. Hong Koners also is a highly educated city.

HK has extremely high Human Development Index(HDI), this is composite statistic based on how long people can live, the level of their education and income per person. These are the reflation of how good of the city, how far they can develop. This is index was introduced by Indian economist Amartya Sen. When that city score higher, their Gross domestic product(GDP) will be higher. HK achieved 0.910 and rank 12 in the world, this is based on literacy rate is over 99%, which means Hong Kongers are suitable to afford people from everywhere and know how to make a profit from them. Behalf on the agreement of Sino-British Joint Declaration, now HK has separate political, economic, executive, legislative and judiciary powers. Apart from military defence and foreign affairs. Even though there are still a lot of countries set up their own consulate in HK, it makes HK as a springboard to step into the Chinese market.

Based on the “One Country, Two system” HK is the most freedom and the highest flexibility in the world. According to Index of Economic System, since HK market settle in 1995, HK has the highest degree of freedom the world and with 89% of freedom by using governed under positive non-interventionism method and other policy such as low taxes (no taxes for the goods apart from spirit, tobacco, gas and cars) well banking systems, no public bond, and other support to the start-up firm or overseas investment. Furthermore, high transparency stock market, equality legal system and anti-corruption measures make HK become as internationalized, modernised and high ranking financial choice in the world, HK can be compared with New York and London. This also can be one of the reasons why people come along to HK as a business trip and shopping in the “shoppers Paradise”.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2016 of HK was US$320.91 Billion, insurance and finance was the biggest part which is 17.6% and the second was tourism which is 9.1%. Which means the tourism industry is one of the major support pillars of the Hong Kong economy. Thus, the HK government Thus, the HK government continues to develop a wide range of diversified tourist attractions through the years.

The Tourism in Hong Kong

Tourism means people travel to other places for, sightseeing, business and no matter what they do in other places but they at least stay for over 24 hours not more than six months. This is one of the biggest industry in the world which included hotel, transports, and lot of things involved directly or indirectly.  

In 2006, even there was a drop of the visitors to HK but there were still 59.3 million and the largest source still from the China due to the policy of the visa, which reached 77%. However, because China and HK is connected, some of the travel time can be less than 2 hours so that this data is including people who not staying for overnight but not for transfer to other places. The second was Taiwan and third was the Eastern Asia.

The first direct impact from tourism is the hotel industry, HK had the top of the quality hotels in the Asia. According to the government data there are “257 hotels and providing over 74,000 rooms. In 2016, the average occupancy rate was 86% and over 80% of the visitor were happy with the accommodation”(HK Gov., 2017, P. 1). Apart from the visitors stay overnight in the hotels, some of them will go to the hostel even camping also is popular for them, this made another kind of income for HK as well. Apart from the accommodation, the transportation also is an important sector for tourism why they choice HK for travel. The HK airport is the top 3 in the world, their efficacy and facility win a lot of rank magazine to give them high reputation. The airport is connected to the downtown underground system, the tourism is easily go to their hotel. The underground(MTR) system are the most convenient in the world, its cover over 70% places in HK. Furthermore, the tramways, peak train, Ngong Ping 360 cable car, ferries on the “must try” list for the tourism. All the transport above can be pay by the cards called “Octopus” this can pay for all of the transport and most of the shops as well. Recently, people also travel by new Cruise as well, this can Cruise as well. new, this can handle the largest cruise ships in the world and make HK become leading regional cruise hub.

Due to the HK was the UK colony, it has the most max culture between the eastern and western including lots of western architecture become some sightseeing places for people. Also, there are two theme park called Ocean Park and Disneyland build for tourism. To attract more people to visit, the government a put lot in investment in it. As mention before, HK is the “shoppers Paradise” because most of the shopping mall included all of the famous brands from the world and all of the close really late, not only in shopping mall is famous for tourism, the night market in HK also is the focus for most of the foreigner. In addition, HK has a lot of rewards such as food and bar reward because in HK, people can try different kind of cuisine with high standard.