A Report on Contemporary Hotel and Tourism Issues in Hong Kong

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of contemporary tourism and accommodation issues in Hong Kong, examining key aspects such as market potential, transport development, accommodation trends, crisis management, social media influence, and visitor experience development. The report identifies and discusses the significance of the tourism industry to Hong Kong's economy, highlighting market segments like millennials and analyzing the impact of political events and social media on tourist arrivals. It explores transport infrastructure improvements, accommodation developments, and the crucial role of crisis and risk management in the face of economic and political challenges. Furthermore, the report investigates the influence of social media on marketing strategies and identifies two contemporary visitor experience sectors, offering insights into the future of tourism in Hong Kong. The report concludes by summarizing key findings, offering a holistic view of the challenges and opportunities within the region's tourism sector.

Running head: CONTEMPORARY HOTEL AND TOURISM ISSUES
CONTEMPORARY HOTEL AND TOURISM ISSUES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CONTEMPORARY HOTEL AND TOURISM ISSUES
Executive Summary
The objective of this report will be to critically evaluate and discuss the issues related with
contemporary tourism and accommodation that are relevant to the destination of Hong Kong.
The issues which will be discussed are the tourism, market potential of the selected destination,
development in tourism, accommodation development, influences through social media on the
region and crisis and risk management in the context of the region of Hong Kong. Two sectors
related to contemporary visitor experience for this selected region will also be identified and
explained in this report. A brief conclusion about the key findings of the report will be discussed
in the conclusion section.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Tourism Market Potential................................................................................................................3
Transport Development...................................................................................................................5
Accommodation Development........................................................................................................6
Crisis and Risk Management...........................................................................................................7
Social Media Influence....................................................................................................................8
Visitor Experience Development.....................................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
Reference.......................................................................................................................................11

3CONTEMPORARY HOTEL AND TOURISM ISSUES
Introduction
The main purpose of this report will be to critically examine and discuss the contemporary
tourism and accommodation issues relevant to the destination of Hong Kong The issues which
will be discussed are the tourism, market potential of the selected destination, development in
tourism, accommodation development, influences through social media on the region and crisis
and risk management in the context of the region of Hong Kong. Two sectors related to
contemporary visitor experience for this selected region will also be identified and explained in
this report. A brief conclusion about the key findings of the report will be discussed in the
conclusion section. As discussed, the identified destination which has been chosen to discuss the
issues relate to contemporary tourism and hotel is Hong Kong. The region, which is also known
as Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (HKSAR), is a
city which is situated in southern part of China. The city is located on the eastern side of the
Pearl River, and is regarded as one of the most densely populated places across the world. More
than 7.4 million people live in this place, along with one of the region possessing the highest per
capita income. The region possess the power of attracting thousands of people from around the
world through the tourist locations that are present in the region, and all the contemporary
tourism and accommodation issues relevant to this destination will be discussed in this paper.
Tourism Market Potential
It can be noted in this context that the industry of tourism is regarded as one of the
primary pillar of the economy of this identified destination. For example, around 4% of the total
gross domestic product of Hong Kong was contributed from the tourism industry. Apart from
this, more than 255,000 people are employed, which holds around 7% of the total employment

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that is hold by this destination. The rate of number of visitors or tourists increased by 11.4% in
the year 2018, and in terms of 2019, the total number of tourists increased by 4% during the first
8 months of this particular area (Gov.hk 2020). So, it can be said that tourism industry possess
the power or potentiality to attract people from around the world, and enjoy the positive effects
of this particular region. More than 60 million people has visited this place in the year of 2019,
but a drop in the overall tourism sector during the 2nd half of this year has started to threaten the
economy of Hong Kong. Issues like antigovernment protests from the month of June 2019 has
decreased the rate of visit of the tourists and this decreased the market potentiality in the context
of tourism industry in this region. The number of visitors fell by 4.8% in the month of July 2019
from the same month of the year of 2018. Almost 31 nations around the world have issued alerts
or travel advisories on this particular region which has deeply affected the overall gross domestic
product of this particular region. It can be stated in this context that tourism sector is treated as
one of the four traditional industries, where an amount of HK$92.2 billion or US$11.76 billion
was generated in the year 2017, where almost 60 ,million visitors travelled to this place of China
(Gov.hk 2020). One new market segment that can be targeted by the government is the
millennial, who love to visit different places to get relief from the stressful daily work life and
enjoy the beauty of these places. This can be a major target segment that can be targeted by the
tourism sector of Hong Kong.

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In the above picture, it can be seen that most of the visitors who have visited Hong Kong are
from China only, people from other parts of the world are less in numbers who have visited this
place from the year 2011 to July 2019. But it can be stated that this market place possess the
potentiality of attracting tourists to visit the major tourist attractions of this place, taking the
issues like antigovernment protests and others into account, which are rising threats to this
particular business industry.
Transport Development
It can be noted in this context that the overall transport and traffic services has been
improved rapidly in the region of Hong Kong, which has directly impacted positively on the
economic and social development of this particular place. Currently, it can be stated that more
than 11 million passenger trips that uses the public transport that exists in this region, which
represents about 90% of the total number of daily commuters. It can be said in this context that
traffic control and surveillance system has been installed in the tunnels along with on the major

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highways and bridges, which has helped to improve the overall transport in this the region of
Hong Kong. Facilities like vehicle detectors, signals used in lane controlling, signs used for
variable speed limit and variable message are used in this place which has helped to improve the
transport facilities and helped to boost the tourism sector of Hong Kong. It can be said that
advancement in the field of technology has helped this place to take the advantages of this and
implemented in the transport department of Hong Kong, so that the tourists can use all these
facilities and get attracted to visit this particular region repeatedly. Apart from the traffic control
and surveillance system, facilities like automated tunnel management system has increased the
issues related with safety and security of the visitors and also increased the capacity of roads and
tunnels, which has boosted the speed of travelling from one place to another faster than before,
which is treated as one of the major factors of attracting tourists to a particular region
successfully. Services like Driver Improvement Scheme has been implemented by the
government of Hong Kong to increase the level of security in the road transport, which is
regarded as one of the major factors that are required to attract tourists to a particular place
(Nzonzo and Chipfuva 2013).
Accommodation Development
Accommodation facilities is also treated as one of the major factor that is required to
attract tourists or visitors from across the world. The same is applicable for the region of Hong
Kong as well. It can be stated in this context that there are more than 299 hotels at the end of
August 2019, which provides facilities through 83,100 rooms to provide accommodation to the
tourists. The occupancy rate was 86% till the month of August 2019, which has deteriorated
from that of the year of 2018, which was 91%. Government of Hong Kong are taking steps or
initiatives to improve further the accommodation facilities which will help to motivate the people

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associated with hotels and other accommodation facilities to provide superior accommodation
facilities to the tourists, so that it will help to attract more people to visit this place as visitors and
boost up the overall tourism sector of this particular place. For example, Land Sale Programme
was implemented in the year 2019-20, which comprises four Kai Tak sites that can be used for
building or development of hotels, and can provide a maximum of 2,900 hotel rooms. These will
further improve the accommodation facilities in the region of Hong Kong and can attract people
from across the world. Thus, it can be stated that the region of Hong Kong has gone through
substantial development in the overall tourism sector, and due to this, the accommodation
facilities in the hotels of this particular place has undergone tremendous growth, which has a
wide array of services that are provided to the tourists who visit this place from across the world.
The current trends though are facing issues like uncertainty in the economy and shortage in the
employees, there is capacity in the hotel industry to continue the growth. Wide array of
innovative services are provided in the new hotels that has been built to provide accommodation
to the tourists. For example, Rosewood Hong Kong in Tsim Tsui has been set up which have 413
rooms to provide accommodation to tourists, along with Alva Hotel with 618 rooms and K11
Artus with 287 rooms. All these are opened in the year 2019, to prove accommodation to the
people. All these are built to provide innovative services to the visitors who will visit the region
of Hong Kong.
Crisis and Risk Management
It can be stated in this context that lots of factors play an important role in the tourism
sector of a place. The same is applicable for the region of Hong Kong as well. Financial crisis in
the region of China is one of the major crisis factor which is decreasing the growth rate of
tourism in Hong Kong. Antigovernment protests and turmoil in the political state of China are

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gradually decreasing the interest level of the tourists to visit the region of Hong Kong. Protests
that are occurring in this region has lowered the interest level of the tourists, which has adversely
affected the tourism sector of this place. The destination managers need to be find alternative
options in order to cope up with these crisis situations and help the people to visit this region
again. It can be said in this context that the major tourist market for Hong Kong is Mainland
China. So, political turmoil in the region of China will directly affect the tourism industry of
Hong Kong. Protests like Occupy Central has adversely affected the tourism industry of Hong
Kong, and these are the areas where the destination managers need to pay their attention to
overcome all these barriers and help people from China as well as other parts of the world can be
attracted to visit the beautiful places of Hong Kong (Morrison 2013).
Social Media Influence
It can be stated in this context that advancement in the area of technology in terms of
social media platforms has affected the tourism sector in global perspective. As it has been
discussed that millennial will be the major target customer segment which need to be targeted by
the destination managers, it can be noted in this context that this target market segment uses
different social media platforms. The behaviour of the travellers are changing to match the pace
of the ever-changing needs and wants related to the tourism sector. Rich and diverse experiences
are possessed in wide variety which is fast and easy to get around. Different social media
platforms has become an indispensable platform in the tourism industry to engage more people at
a time. For example, Hong Kong Tourism Board possess profiles on different social media
platforms like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, LINE, Pinterest, WeChat, Tencent and
Weibo in order to increase the exposure as well as creating a platform for interaction and
communication. Various kind of new and innovative offerings regarding the services that are

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provided to the tourists can be circulated through different social media platforms along with
offering the discounts and offers in context of accommodation facilities can be provided on the
social media platforms of different hotels and other accommodation facilities as well. These will
increase the clarity between the tourists and the destination managers, and proper communication
can be followed by the people who are associated with this business industry. It will also help to
reach out to the potential customer segment, which will help to boost up the economic condition
of Hong Kong (hku.hk 2020).
Visitor Experience Development
One of the major contemporary visitor experience sectors for the destination of Hong
Kong is the theme park. The government of this region are taking initiatives to beautify these
places so that people get attracted to these places and visit the theme parks. These has already
helped Hong Kong to become a premier tourist destination globally. The Ocean Park, for
example, has been set up to attract the tourists. The park possess more than 80 attractions along
with an all-weather outdoor cum indoor waterpark and two hotels, one of which will be
completed within the year 2021. These will provide to enhance the accommodation facilities and
more people can visit this place and stay to enjoy all the attractions of this park. Another
contemporary visitor experience sector is the Cruise tourism, which has also ignited the level of
interest of the global people in the context of tourism sector (Lubis and Osman 2014).
Millennial, which is the targeted market segment, can be attracted to avail the cruise service,
which is operated from Kai Tak Cruise Terminal and possess the power of handling two largest
cruise ships simultaneously. Necessary infrastructure is already there to reinforce the position of
Hong Kong as a leading regional cruise hub in the southern region of Asia. Different initiatives
has been taken by the government as well as private business entities to transform Hong Kong

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into a major attracted place globally and maintain a firm position of Hong Kong in global
tourism sector.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the region of Hong Kong possess the
power of becoming a leading place in the global tourism industry. Though few recommended
steps need to be taken by the destination managers along with other people who are associated
with this business industry. There are many attracted tourist destinations that are present in this
destination which possess the power of attracting people from around the world. New market
segment need to be targeted effectively and efficiently, so that it will help to provide positive
outcomes and help the tourism of this place flourish like never before and help to boost up the
economy of this region to grow rapidly.

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Reference
Gov.hk. (2020). Hong Kong: The Facts Tourism. Retrieved 8 February 2020, from
https://www.gov.hk/en/about/abouthk/factsheets/docs/tourism.pdf
Lubis, Z. and Osman, A., 2014. Indonesian tourism sector: A potential sector that has not been
optimized. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 8(23), pp.286-290.
Nzonzo, J.C. and Chipfuva, T., 2013. Managing Talent in the Tourism and Hospitality Sector: A
Conceptual View Point. International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance
and Management Sciences, 3(2), pp.92-97.
Morrison, A.M., 2013. Marketing and managing tourism destinations. Routledge.
gov.hk. (2020). Retrieved 8 February 2020, from
https://www.td.gov.hk/filemanager/en/publication/td-booklet-final-251108.pdf
hku.hk. (2020). Retrieved 8 February 2020, from
http://ebook.lib.hku.hk/CADAL/B38632524.pdf