What are your plans for the week ahead? Are you bracing for the crowds of mainland tourists the government hopes will descend upon Hong Kong for the Labour Day “golden week” holiday to fill our restaurants and spend in our shops?
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Last year, about 766,000 people from the mainland visited during the holiday week. The industry expectation is for over 800,000 to come this year – modest and pretty much what the government expected last year.
Things did not go very well last year. The May 1 fireworks, meant to kick off the brilliant idea of monthly pyrotechnic shows, turned out to be underwhelming – it was described as “budget-style” – just like the mainland tourist numbers. And last year’s expectation of 800,000 mainland visitors, announced by no less than Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu himself, was still only about 80 per cent of pre-Covid levels; Hong Kong welcomed about 1 million from the mainland for the same holiday week in 2019.
Whether we will see a massive exodus is still an open question; over the recent Easter holiday Hongkongers made 2.46 million outbound trips, leaving the local retail and catering industries suffering. Given changing consumption behaviour and the uncertainties brought on by trade wars, I think we should brace for disappointment.
Indeed, we should already be disappointed. Since when has Labour Day become just another moneymaking holiday?
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Also known as International Workers’ Day, it is traditionally celebrated as a public holiday to mark workers’ achievements and to campaign for their rights. This city once had unions and labour groups taking to the streets on May 1 and holding rallies, petitioning the government for better worker rights and protection.