“Hong Kong’s attractiveness has overall weakened,” said Dicky Yip Chi-wai, the president of the Hong Kong Tourism Practitioners’ Union. “It used to be a shopping paradise, but now people can buy the same things on the mainland.”
After the Covid-19 pandemic, he observed a rise in day trips where tourists would arrive in the city early in the morning and head back to the mainland that same night.
“They would come and walk around the city instead of really spending money here,” he said.
On mainland social media platforms Xiaohongshu, terms such as “Hong Kong in a Day” and “Tourist Special Forces ” have gone viral, with posts containing the former amassing more than 54 million views.
Popular posts contain detailed maps and itineraries, with users…
