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Hong kong tourism sinking Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/5728667.htmhttp://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/5728667.htm
Posted on Sun, Apr. 27, 2003
Hong Kong tourism sinking from SARS
By Jennifer Welker
Special to the Mercury News
HONG KONG -In one month, SARS, or more accurately, the fear of SARS has brought Hong Kong's tourism industry to its knees.
After the World Health Organization slapped a travel advisory on Hong Kong and Southern China last month, average hotel occupancies that were once 79 percent citywide in early March, plummeted to 50 percent by the end of the month and fell further to 15 percent during the first week of April, according to the Hong Kong Hotels Association.
Just a little more than a week ago, one of the city's best-known international five-star hotels recorded a mere 1.9 percent occupancy. Another popular five-star property had only 5 percent occupancy.
``I've been in the business over 30 years, and I've never seen the business this bad,'' said Paul Chiu of PC Tours and Travel in Hong Kong. ``I'm getting 100 percent cancellations this month. It will be just a matter of time before we are down to 100 percent cancellations for May as well, unless things improve in the next week.''
Slashing prices used to be the way out, but now the industry is painfully aware that even if you are paid to come, there will be no takers.
The Rolling Stones, Moby and Santana canceled their concerts this month.
Hong Kong's flagship carrier, Cathay Pacific Airways, which boasted an 8.7 percent increase in traffic last year, with an average of 30,000 passengers a day, now says it is ``hemorrhaging cash,'' losing $3 million a day. It is facing the prospect of carrying as few as 6,000 passengers daily next month.
The carrier has canceled about 40 percent of its flights worldwide, although it maintains it has no plans to ground its entire fleet.
Dragonair, the only Hong Kong carrier to link the territory to mainland China, reduced its flights into and out of the mainland, Taiwan and several other regional Asia destinations by 48 percent. International carriers such as British Airways and Qantas are no longer using Hong Kong as a hub.
Staff from all sectors of the travel trade are taking voluntary or involuntary unpaid leave to help relieve the financial burden on companies. Some smaller travel agencies may have to shut down temporarily or even permanently if SARS is not contained and the WHO advisories remain in effect much longer.
The tourism board has pulled all its promotional advertising, but people continue to snicker at the now-famous ``Hong Kong takes your breath away'' campaign in Europe.
However, some tourism leaders say that even though SARS has wreaked havoc on Hong Kong's tourism industry today, it has brought about a tremendous opportunity to change and rebuild Hong Kong's image as a tourist destination in the future. There is a Chinese saying ``wei ji,'' which means turning a crisis into an opportunity.
Arthur Kiong, The Peninsula Hong Kong's director of marketing, said as painful as SARS is now, it will have a positive impact on the travel industry as a whole.
``This will serve to unite the tourism industry, to address the more long-term and macro aspects of Hong Kong's attractiveness as a destination,'' he said. Issues that have plagued the industry in the past, such as environmental pollution and bait-and-switch tactics ``must now be given concerted and meaningful attention.''
Chiu, with PC Tours and Travel, agreed. ``We need to dig deeper, start looking at a series of ways to improve the city and tell the world we are coming back with something better. We are starting from ground zero here.''
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