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LettersAre we preserving the Hong Kong tourists come here for?
Readers discuss the new tourism campaign, and construction schedules in an era of climate change
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The Tourism Board’s new “Only in Hong Kong” campaign gets something right. Rather than leaning on mega-events and headline attractions, it turns its attention to Hong Kong experiences that are authentic and distinctive: tram rides, neighbourhood streets, dai pai dong, wet markets and scenes that visitors are more likely to remember long after they leave.
That approach reflects how travel is changing. Increasingly, people are looking for a sense of place rather than another skyline to photograph. What stays with them is often not a landmark but the atmosphere around it. If Hong Kong wants to market itself through feeling and experience, it needs to preserve more of the things that create that feeling in the first place.
The reaction to the filming of Highlander on Peel Street was a good reminder. The production recreated a Hong Kong streetscape with neon signs and hawker stalls, drawing hundreds of onlookers. While Henry Cavill helped attract the crowds, the fascination with the setting was hard to miss. Part of the appeal was the familiarity of seeing a streetscape that felt unmistakably Hong Kong, even though it had been reconstructed for a Hollywood production.
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