Hong Kong became a ghost town during the Easter holiday as residents made a record number of trips out of town — particularly to mainland China — leaving bar strips and shopping hotspots empty.
A total of 9.3 million departures from the territory of 7.3 million people occurred last month. It was the single-highest monthly number since at least 1997, government data showed.
The exodus continued through the four-day Easter holiday that ended on Monday, when total Hong Kong resident departures for Macau and mainland China was 10 percent higher than in 2019, the data showed.
Photo: Bloomberg
This year’s Easter tourist arrivals in Hong Kong from mainland China and Macau plunged 46 percent from the 2019 period.
The great departure underscores the challenges facing the once vibrant financial center that has seen a large swath of its professional workers relocate to other countries, a diminished entertainment sector and soaring prices.
The record outflow was largely the result of people heading across the border to the mainland and Macau, where they can enjoy cheaper and a larger variety of entertainment, food and shopping.
Hong Kong residents last month made 8.3 million departures via border checkpoints — another record since at least 1997 — typically used to travel to the rest of China.
Hong Kong is increasingly losing out to nearby Chinese cities including tech hub Shenzhen and casino town Macau as a high-speed rail and a mega cross-sea bridge make cross-border travel faster and easier than ever before.
The financial center is struggling to maintain its appeal in the face of an economic slowdown and weaker yuan.
High Hong Kong rents and limited entertainment offerings — from restaurants to shopping — have pushed up prices and reduced residents’ choices.
Local bars and restaurants are struggling to stay afloat. Dining-in business over the Easter holiday was estimated to have fallen by as much as 40 percent from a year earlier, Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades president Simon Wong (黃家和) said on a local radio program on Monday.
A Facebook group about Hong Kong stores shutting down has attracted 186,000 members, with users posting photographs of shuttered outlets, empty shops and going-out-of business announcements.
Even Hong Kong’s tycoon-owned supermarket chains, such as CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd’s (長江和記實業) ParknShop and Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd’s (怡和控股) Wellcome, are facing increasing pressure as they rework strategies to provide people with more choices.
State-owned conglomerates China Resources Holdings Co (華潤集團) and Dah Chong Hong Holdings Ltd (大昌行集團) — the territory’s biggest food and fast-moving consumer goods distributors — have closed dozens of grocery stores in the past few months.
Travel agencies operating tours to the mainland, on the other hand, are experiencing booming business. Over the Easter holiday, the number of Hong Kong residents signing up for tour groups to other Chinese cities rose three-fold from a year earlier, EGL Tours Co (東瀛遊旅行社) executive director Steve Huen (禤國全) said.
Semiconductor shares in China surged yesterday after Reuters reported the US had ordered chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to halt shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers, which investors believe could accelerate Beijing’s self-reliance efforts. TSMC yesterday started to suspend shipments of certain sophisticated chips to some Chinese clients after receiving a letter from the US Department of Commerce imposing export restrictions on those products, Reuters reported on Sunday, citing an unnamed source. The US imposed export restrictions on TSMC’s 7-nanometer or more advanced designs, Reuters reported. Investors figured that would encourage authorities to support China’s industry and bought shares
FLEXIBLE: Taiwan can develop its own ground station equipment, and has highly competitive manufacturers and suppliers with diversified production, the MOEA said The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday disputed reports that suppliers to US-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) had been asked to move production out of Taiwan. Reuters had reported on Tuesday last week that Elon Musk-owned SpaceX had asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan given geopolitical risks and that at least one Taiwanese supplier had been pushed to relocate production to Vietnam. SpaceX’s requests place a renewed focus on the contentious relationship Musk has had with Taiwan, especially after he said last year that Taiwan is an “integral part” of China, sparking sharp criticism from Taiwanese authorities. The ministry said
US President Joe Biden’s administration is racing to complete CHIPS and Science Act agreements with companies such as Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co, aiming to shore up one of its signature initiatives before US president-elect Donald Trump enters the White House. The US Department of Commerce has allocated more than 90 percent of the US$39 billion in grants under the act, a landmark law enacted in 2022 designed to rebuild the domestic chip industry. However, the agency has only announced one binding agreement so far. The next two months would prove critical for more than 20 companies still in the process
CHANGING JAPAN: Nvidia-powered AI services over cellular networks ‘will result in an artificial intelligence grid that runs across Japan,’ Nvidia’s Jensen Huang said Softbank Group Corp would be the first to build a supercomputer with chips using Nvidia Corp’s new Blackwell design, a demonstration of the Japanese company’s ambitions to catch up on artificial intelligence (AI). The group’s telecom unit, Softbank Corp, plans to build Japan’s most powerful AI supercomputer to support local services, it said. That computer would be based on Nvidia’s DGX B200 product, which combines computer processors with so-called AI accelerator chips. A follow-up effort will feature Grace Blackwell, a more advanced version, the company said. The announcement indicates that Softbank Group, which until early 2019 owned 4.9 percent of Nvidia, has secured a
RSS