Tourism to Hong Kong

1. 0 Introduction Hong Kong is wholeness of the most primal touristry destinations in the Pacific Asia region for its unique landscape and shop convenience. According to statistics, a total depend of 41921310 mint visited Hong Kong in 2011, that is 16. 4% more comp bed to 2010 (Hong Kong touristry plank 2012). Total touristry expenditure was 263142. 71 million HK dollars and obtain musical scores for most of them because it is the main purpose for individual visitors (Hong Kong touristry come along 2012).Therefore, to sustain touristry prosperity while seeking ontogenesis in the city, it is necessary to understand its unique geographical features and precisely establish the tourism trends. Meanwhile, analysing factors that put up influenced tourism development forget also append to the study. Besides, eco-tourism and humour issues are discussed as implications for the future. 2. 0 Findings 2. 1 Physical and benignant geography 2. 1. 1 Location Hong Kong is a mounta inous citylocatednearShenzhen, mainland China.There are quaternion main areas in the city, including Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, New territories and Outlying islands, and their area add up to 1100 square kilometres (Cullinane&038Cullinane, 2003). For the reason of its unique landscape, virtually 40% of Hong Kong is built up as country places (Cullinane&038Cullinane, 2003). 2. 1. 2 Demography The city enjoys of a population of 6. 7 million, and it is growing at a rate of one million every ten years (Cullinane&038Cullinane, 2003). 2. 1. 3 Political statusFor everyplace 150 years before 1997, Hong Kong had been governed by the British administration, and it became a severalize of Peoples Republic of Chinaonce again on July 1st, 1997 (Cullinane&038Cullinane, 2003). This reunification has brought opportunities and immense transplants in Hong Kong. 2. 2 Pattern of tourism 2. 2. 1 Visitor arrivals innovation 1Visitor Arrivals 2007 2011 (000) Source (Hong Kong touristry Board 2008, 2010, 2012) bit 1 shows the total number of visitors to Hong Kong in every single year from 2007 to 2011.Visitors are divided into trey categories, including overnight visitors, same-day in-town visitors, and Cruise-in/Cruise- pop Passengers. It is indicated in the figure that overnight visitors occupied most of the visitors. send back 1Visitor Arrivals Details by Country/Territory of Residence 2007 2011 (Overnight Visitors 000) Source (Hong Kong tourism Board 2012) Table 1 shows that Mainland China has the most visitors to Hong Kong in the late(prenominal) five years, with an annual growth rate of approximately 15%.Besides, Taiwan, japan, the ground forces and South Korea are also generating a large number of tourists to Hong Kong, star(p) to tourism prosperity of the city. 2. 2. 2 Total tourism expenditure Figure 2Total Tourism Expenditure Associated to Inbound Tourism Source (Hong Kong Tourism Board 2012) Figure 2 shows total tourism expenditure from 2007 to 2011 and the line chart presents an increase trend. The growth rate is rather high in 2010 and 2011 as a result of the tourist boom in those years. 2. 3 Factors that boast influenced tourism in Hong Kong 2. 3. 1 Outbursts of infectious diseasesIn 2003, Severe Acute respiratory Syndrome (SARS) attacked the city of Hong Kong and guide to the devastation of Hong Kong tourism. Originated in southern China, SARS was a mystery to the rest of the world until several people were infected in a hotel in Hong Kong and brought the disease back to their home country. Before dread the danger and risk that would have been brought by SARS, the World Health physical composition (WHO) make a recommendation to the world that Asia, e specificly areas of Hong Kong, Singapore, Mainland China, Thailand, Vietnam, and Taiwan, were non well(predicate) destinations for tourism (McKercher&038 Chon 2004 Kuo et al. 008). This unprecedented announcement caused significant panic in the world, tourists were separated f or no reason after returning to their country, breeding industry was interrupt for disinfection on chicken farms, and Asians were restricted from traveling elsewhere. The mess finally led to the crackdown of tourism in Asia, with Hong Kong suffering the most (McKercher&038 Chon 2004). This outburst of SARS bring out huge hidden dangers in the world tourism system.The governances over-reaction tounclear threat was aught but rational (Mao, Ding &038 Lee 2010). The crisis was a lesson for the world on the relationship between tourism and crisis management, the politics should act more smart so that diseases could be effectively controlled and meanwhile, tourism does non suffer to a great extent. 2. 3. 2Construction of city infrastructure Since the accelerated development of infrastructure in Hong Kong in the 1990s, the number of tourists has experienced a continued increase (Poon, Yu &038 Ng 2001).Tourist infrastructure mainly includes apartments or hotels for accommodation and transportation infrastructure, and the latter consists of facilities for planes, trains, ships and another(prenominal) modes of transportation (Gossling 2002 Khadaroo 2007, 2008). look forers have found that the ability of a city to invoke tourists is largely determined by the level of traffic infrastructure in the city (Khadaroo 2007), for the reason that rational city planningand well construction of ports could stomach convenience for tourists, which leads to smooth trips.Successful travellers are allow foring to recommend their tourism destinations to their friends, and this will further lead to lasting prosperity of that destination. Although most facilities in Hong Kong are relatively complete, there remain rough incompletion. An example is medical facilities require for medical tourism. Hospitals in Hong Kong provide high level healthcare services, and the government attempts to boost medical tourism in the city (Heung, Kucukusta&038 Song 2011). However, the wish of m edical resources ends up to be the barrier which prevents tourists with medical needs from press cutting edge technologies in Hong Kong.As a result, Hong Kong failed to build its reputation as a medical tourism destination. 2. 3. 3 Outbreaks of financial crises Hong Kong has experienced two study financial crises during departed two decades, the Asian financial crisis burst out in 1997 and the world financial crisis in 2008 (Song &038 Lin 2010). This report mainly focuses on consequences that were brought to tourism in Hong Kong by the latter crisis. Table 1 shows that the USA, UK, Japan and Singapore are among the source grocery stores that generate most tourists to Hong Kong.The high market share of long-haul markets indicates that Hong Kong tourism is vulnerable to world economy and thus would be negatively influenced if something went wrong. In 2008, tourists from long-haul markets such as the USA and European countries declined by 10% and hotel rooms were less occupied than ever before (Song et al. 2011). If the tourists increasing rate before the crisis is taken into leaseation, conclusions could be drawn that the financial crisis rattling cloaked tourism in Hong Kong to a great extent.Fortunately, tourists from Mainland China were not greatly influenced by this enormous crisis and visitors continued to travel to Hong Kong. This prevented the city from fantastic losses. Nevertheless, the overall expenditures dropped in 2009 which leads to the conclusion that financial crises could impose great threats to tourism in Hong Kong (Song &038 Lin 2010). 2. 3. 4 Adjustments of policies towards Mainland China After introducing the Individual Visit avoidance on July 28, 2003, citizens of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdongare allowed to apply for visas and visit Hong Kong on anindividual basis (Wu, Li &038 Song 2012).The scheme was implemented forthe acceleration of tourism development in two special administrative regions in China, and it is successful accor ding to statistical results. Statistics show that the number of tourists from the source market of Mainland China increased by 24% in 2003 compared to that of 2002, and most of the growth was contributed by individual visitors (Hong Kong Tourism Board 2012). As a matter of fact, thousands of Mainlanders have boosted into Hong Kong for the purpose of shopping and Hong Kong has become the paradise for shopping in the eyes of Mainlanders ever since (Wu, Li &038 Song 2012).In order to guarantee long-term prosperity of businesses, merchants targeting Mainlanders have made adjustments regarding to shopping customs of Chinese consumers and the crucial point of the efforts is to create an atmosphere of mutual trust and cooperation (Wu, Li &038 Song 2012). Since tourists from Mainland China occupy approximately 60% of total tourists every year, it is important that policies towards Mainland China remain flaccid in the coming years to sustain tourism prosperity in Hong Kong (Hong Kong Touri sm Board 2012). 2. 4 Implications for the future of tourism 2. 4. Sustainable tourism practices Experience has shown that it is almost impossible to develop tourism while maintaining a clean environment at the same time. However, people have been making efforts to seek some extent of harmony and unity between the two. Hong Kong is a perfect city for the development of eco-tourism for it has a spectacular landscape, including mountains, valleys, coasts and islands (Ng &038 Li 2000). Hong Kong government has been successful protecting the citys natural resources, it had the highest percentage of the park area in the worldin 2000 (Ng &038 Li 2000).Besides, Hong Kong enjoys a large variety of two animal and plant species, some of which cannot be found elsewhere in the world (Ng &038 Li 2000). Enchanting as the scenery is in Hong Kong, eco-tourism is not a main form of tourism there. The following factors may account for this result. First of all, Hong Kong is in the sub-tropical zone, and the typical summer is so hot that people will feel uncomfortable to visit popular attractions (Ng &038 Li 2000). punt of all, eco-tourism destinations are usually sensitive to the number of visitors, thus, they normally have a low capacity (Ng &038 Li 2000).Rational management regulations should be made to relaxation tourism satisfaction and the necessary visitor limitationneeded for scenic spots. Finally, more experts in guidance have to be trained to provide information of spots (Ng &038 Li 2000). It seems that there is still a long way to go before eventually launching a successful eco-tourism plan in Hong Kong. 2. 4. 2 Climate change How climate change will affect the pattern of tourism has long been studied. Studies have shown that as climate change will either directly or indirectly influence tourism (Chan &038 Lai 2012).One of the main results of climate change is the rise in temperature. According to statistics, Hong Kongs temperature has been surging during the past 15 years, and it is almost 5 degrees Celsius higher than 10 years ago (Chan &038 Lai 2012). The high temperature will definitely bring uncomforting experiences to tourists,. Thus, it is likely that potential visitors will change their destinations elsewhere. Besides, although some tourists might not consider the temperature increase itself as a crucial factor in find out their destinations, the change due to this phenomenon, such as increased travel expenses, will affect tourism ehaviour to a great extent (Chan &038 Lai 2012). While efforts have been made towards lowering the speed of temperature increase, the results turn out not assuring. Although climate change does not affect tourism in Hong Kong as more as that in tourism-oriented island cities, people should deal will this issue soberly before it is too late. 3. 0 Conclusion In conclusion, although Hong Kong has been through some hard times, the city remains potential as a tourism destination.This report discusses the city of Hong Kong from tourism aspect. As an important city in the Pacific Asia region, Hong Kong has enjoyed a fine reputation among tourists. Its unique landscape and special location have attracted and are still attracting visitors in large scales. During the past two decades, several financial crises have imposed danger on tourism in the city to a great extent, but a few policy adjustments, especially the policy of opening up to Mainland China individual visitors, saved the industry from collapsing.Eco-tourism could be further developed to proportionality economic development and environment protection, but several issues need to be solved before concrete implementation. Climate change is also a challenge that needs early planning, thus, effective efforts demand immediate attention. ? References Chan, GKY &038 Lai, MTH 2012, pinch Climate Change, Carbon-offsetting and their concerns on Travel Behaviour, viewed 24 November 2012, . Cullinane, S , K 2003, Hong Kong urban center Pro file, Cities, Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 279-288.Gossling, S 2002, international environmental consequences of tourism, Global Environmental Change, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 283-302. 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