THE impacts of the ongoing Occupy Central protest on Hong Kong’s tourism sector are becoming more apparent since it started in late September.
While Harbour Plaza 8 Degrees saw minimal cancellations during the week-long National Day holiday and maintained an occupancy rate similar to last year’s (over 90 per cent), general manager Christina Cheng said that the hotel received cancellations of 180 room nights for this month.
She added: “Some business partners told us that some overseas clients have switched to other destinations due to the current situation in Hong Kong. This affects our future pick-ups.”
Sharing similar views, InterContinental Hong Kong, director of sales and marketing, Linda Hodgson, said: “During and immediately following China’s Golden Week, there was a slowdown in bookings and enquiries particularly from the Chinese market. However, the business segment continues to show strong bookings for the month and the general pace has increased again over the last few days. We did not receive any requests to postpone or cancel events in the next few months.”
While there were rumours that the Chinese government suspended the issuance of group tour and FIT visas to Hong Kong since late September, Sincere International Travel Services managing director, Charles Ng, shared that he did not receive any official documents so far.
“For sure, the visa service was stopped during the Golden Week holiday but I haven’t seen Chinese traffic stopping over the past week,” he said. “The movement did exert a negative impact on the city, but Chinese travellers are (in fact already) spoiled with many itineraries and destinations more affordable than Hong Kong. It’s not a must for them to come here.”
Although Chinese arrivals to Hong Kong grew 5.6 per cent over the Golden Week, Travel Industry Council chairman Michael Wu expressed worries that if the protest drags on, business and MICE traffic might be diverted to Macau.
Preliminary statistics by Public Security Police Force of Macau showed over 840,000 Chinese visited the city during the Golden Week, an increase of 17 per cent.
However, Gray Line Tours of Macau managing director, Andy Wu, said: “The growth this year is within our expectation. Chinese group tours always put Hong Kong and Macau as twin destinations, so they would not just come to Macau.”
