旅遊業：由大酒店到自由行

1. Hotels first: accommodation as the first piece of tourism infrastructure

The first piece of tourism hardware in Hong Kong was a hotel, not an attraction. On 29 February 1868 the Hong Kong Hotel opened at the junction of Queen’s Road and Pedder Street in Central, the first deluxe hotel in the territory.

Sixty years later the Kowloon side acquired its counterpart. On 11 December 1928 the Peninsula Hotel held its opening ceremony, and the seven-storey building remained the tallest in Kowloon until the 1950s. That description is worth noting: a hotel is not only accommodation but also a statement of height and standing — the Peninsula’s site and scale announced Kowloon’s position to travellers crossing the harbour.

The two hotels correspond to two phases of Hong Kong as an entrepôt: Central in the steamship age, and Tsim Sha Tsui after the railway arrived. Tourism infrastructure follows transport nodes, a rule that held afterwards too — Ocean Terminal in 1966 and the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal in 2013 obey the same logic.

2. Turning promotion into a statutory duty: from association to board

On 21 June 1957 the Government enacted a new law making the Hong Kong Tourist Association a statutory body with the duty of promoting Hong Kong overseas and attracting visitors. The significance is not that an organisation came into being but that promotion moved from voluntary industry work to a statutory public task.

More than four decades later the same body changed both its name and its emphasis. From 1 April 2001 the Hong Kong Tourist Association was renamed the Hong Kong Tourism Board to strengthen the promotion of Hong Kong as a destination worldwide. The shift from “association” to “board” is itself a statement of intent: not merely receiving visitors but actively building markets.

The change also raises an institutional question: a promotion body does not regulate. The board can advertise and stage events, but travel agents’ conduct, guides’ qualifications and compensation for travellers sit on another track — the track of industry self-regulation and a compensation fund, taken up in the fourth section.

3. Three pieces of hardware: a cruise terminal, a theme park, a mall

On 22 March 1966 Ocean Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui was completed and opened, the first pier in Hong Kong able to berth ocean liners. Its name states the purpose: ocean first, people second. Cruise passengers stay several days and spend more, unlike same-day visitors.

On 10 January 1977 the opening ceremony of Ocean Park took place in Wong Chuk Hang. The park was built with full funding from the Jockey Club on land provided free by the Government, with three facilities for amusement and viewing aquatic life. The model is worth remembering: land from the Government, money from the Club, operation later handed to a statutory body — Hong Kong’s large recreational facilities are often assembled from three parties.

On 23 November 1982 Harbour City in Tsim Sha Tsui, developed by Wharf Holdings, officially opened: a mixed development of malls, offices, hotels and residences, the largest of its kind in Hong Kong at the time, able to accommodate 600 shops. From hotel to terminal to mall, the centre of gravity shifted — lodging, arrival, then shopping. Talk of “tourism” today rarely means attractions alone, because most spending happens inside malls and hotels.

4. Soft infrastructure: self-regulation, a festival and a compensation fund

Regulation of the travel trade in Hong Kong has never been entirely direct government action. On 19 October 1978 the Hong Kong Association of Travel Agents was established to promote liaison within the industry, aiming to link the trade with the Government, airlines and other bodies while safeguarding the industry’s interests. Note the last point: the association is both coordinator and industry representative, a dual role that later became the focus of arguments about whether self-regulation is enough.

The trade also organised its own promotion. On 30 May 1979 the Hong Kong Chinese Merchants Travel Association held the first Tourism Festival, which ran for fourteen consecutive days after the opening ceremony. A chamber-run, fortnight-long event shows that tourism promotion at the time was still largely industry-led rather than delivered by a public body.

Consumer protection came later. On 15 October 1993 the Travel Industry Compensation Fund was established to compensate travellers injured or killed abroad and those who lost money when a travel agent closed. The design carries a point: tourism risk does not stop at the Hong Kong boundary, so protection had to cover what happens after departure — an institution had to catch the traveller abroad.

5. A theme park, the Individual Visit Scheme and new gateways

On 2 November 1999 the SAR Government signed an agreement with The Walt Disney Company to build a theme park in Hong Kong. The agreement means more than an attraction: the Government became an investor, and tourism policy moved from promotion to shareholding.

From 28 July 2003 the Individual Visit Scheme under CEPA was first implemented in Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Foshan in Guangdong, whose residents could travel to Hong Kong in their own capacity. The policy changed the composition of visitors: instead of arriving mainly in tour groups, travellers came as individuals deciding their own itineraries, lodging and spending. On 12 September 2005 Hong Kong Disneyland held its opening ceremony — nearly six years after the agreement.

Gateways expanded too. On 12 June 2013 the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal began operation, with Mariner of the Seas the first ship to berth; on 20 June 2015 Quantum of the Seas called there, the largest cruise ship ever to visit Hong Kong. From Ocean Terminal in 1966 to Kai Tak in 2013, it took nearly half a century to build a second large cruise terminal — a gap that shows how long tourism infrastructure takes to deliver.

Read the five sections together and Hong Kong tourism appears as three stacked layers: private accommodation and retail (hotels, malls), public promotion (association, then board), and industry self-regulation plus compensation (council, fund). Each layer has its own timetable and its own blind spot; today’s arguments about too many visitors or too little spending are really arguments about which layer should carry the responsibility.