Hong Kong’s dedicated seafarers club has high hopes that the opening of its redeveloped nine-storey guest house on Tuesday next week will see members of the maritime industry once again coming to stay for crew changes.
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The Mariners club, which is run by the Sailors Home and Mission to Seafarers, is now based in a 43-floor building in Tsim Sha Tsui, with the rest of the skyscraper being turned into a hotel independently run by the international operator Kimpton.
The club’s space has amenities such as a church, swimming pool, dining establishments, a gym and 75 guest rooms.
The redevelopment suffered a major setback in 2023 when it was engulfed in flames for nine hours, triggering a No 4 alarm fire on the city’s five-tier scale. The blaze could even be seen from the other side of Victoria Harbour.
The reopening comes after Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu used his latest policy address to push for maritime development, proposing “more outgoing and comprehensive overseas and mainland promotional strategies”, despite the number of active local seafarers declining to 515 as of December 31 last year.
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“By providing the best facility for seafarers, we hope the maritime industry will choose Hong Kong to conduct their crew changes,” Reverend Canon Stephen Miller of the mission said.