At the Mercy of Landlords

This hotel has a good location, so why does it need to be knocked down?

A property investment company that owns a hotel in Causeway Bay wants to tear it down and turn it into an office building.

SEA Holdings, a publicly-listed company, recently applied to the Town Planning Board to demolish the 29-storey hotel and turn it into a 22-storey office tower with restaurants and shops.

Why? Because it is more profitable to rent out space on a monthly basis than hire staff to look after hotel rooms and guests, and try to fill them on a daily basis.

Remember the Ritz-Carlton and the Furama in Central?

What's also contentious is that the hotel, the Crowne Plaza Hong Kong Causeway Bay is only eight years old so knocking it down would not only mean more waste in our landfills, but more importantly less rooms for visitors to stay in.

In Central there used to be a handful of hotels like the Hilton, Furama, and Ritz-Carlton; now it's only the Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong and the Landmark Mandarin Oriental.

How can the Hong Kong Tourism Board lure more visitors to the city if more hotels get torn down?

But it seems like there is actually a glut in the market when it comes to hotel rooms in Hong Kong -- many low to mid-range ones are struggling to be able to charge HK$1,000 a night.

The Murray Building will be turned into a hotel by 2018

For example Ibis Hong Kong in Sheung Wan,  charges just under HK$1,000 a night on weekends, but come weekdays, it's just over HK$600 a night.

One critic of the plans to knock down the Crowne Plaza says property developers don't lose a night's sleep squeezing as much as they can out of us, neither do landlords who double our rents -- they think someone else will take it.

That's why these people are called psychopaths.

But in the meantime, The Murray Building in Central used to be an office building and is now being refurbished into a hotel by keeping the outer shell intact.

Quick fixes aren't what we need in Hong Kong. We need a more visonary, steady approach to development. Knocking down an eight-year-old building is not the way to go.

HK Financial Secretary Promotes Tourism

John Tsang (right) with some fencing students at La Salle College

Tourism is down in Hong Kong, with hotels offering cut rates on rooms -- even Disneyland is slashing its room rates in half -- and there are lots of shopping incentives -- if you have the money to spend.

To pitch in and do his part, Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah is starring in a new mildly amusing video encouraging people to visit the city.

It starts off in his alma mater La Salle College where he is a fencing coach -- who knew Tsang was a fencer! -- and then he asks a group of students if they are talking about him.

They reply they talking about Hong Kong and one asks the senior official in a Cantonese pun, "Sir, would you tai sou?" which means "shave", referring to his moustache.

He doesn't miss a beat and instead says, "No, but I'll definitely tai show", or "watch a show".

Groan.

Then the video continues much like any other tourism video with flashy nightlife scenes, mouthwatering food, verdant hills, famous landmarks and so on.

Should we be impressed? Amused? Proud?

Just seems weird the Financial Secretary would do this, but then again practically everyone else in the administration is mired in mini scandals (Paul Chan Mo-po, Gregory So Kam-yuen), or burned out (Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor).

Then again Tsang is the one trying to promote his food truck idea too which is somewhat touristy...

Retail Sales Plunge in Hong Kong

Causeway Bay may look busy but who is actually shopping?

Retailers in Hong Kong are freaking out with sales plunging 13.6 percent in the first two months of the year, the biggest slump since 1999. More bad news is expected later in the year.

The Hong Kong Retail Management Association expects retailers to see double-digit decline in the first quarter, and end the year with a contraction in the high single digits.

Part of the reason is due to declining visitor figures, which dropped 13 percent in the past year. Those from the mainland fell 18 percent even though there was an increase of 7 percent in overseas visitors, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board.

Supermarkets seem to be the best retail sector at the moment

Some expect large-scale layoffs and a string of shop closures this year if the situation doesn't improve.

In 20 retail categories surveyed, only supermarket goods recorded growth, expanding 0.2 percent in the first two months of 2016, while 13 other categories saw double-digit declines.

Thomson Cheng Wai-hung, chairman of the association, was very surprised people didn't splurge for Chinese New Year, adding that local consumption had softened.

"We were all shocked... People would not spend money even during Lunar New Year," he said.

The biggest slump was in jewellery, watches and other valuables that mainlanders typically came to Hong Kong to buy, followed by sales of clothing and department store goods, which shrank 11.4 percent and 12.3 percent respectively.

Jewellery and watch sales dropped in January and February

Cheng said many locals and tourists were more interested in spending their money outside of Hong Kong.

So many people are flocking to Japan to go shopping as the yen is weak and why not go to a place where the residents are polite, the streets are clean and food is delicious?

The second best places for value is Taiwan and Thailand.

While the slowing down of consumption isn't good for the Hong Kong economy, environmentalists must be thrilled people are spending less. And with supermarket sales going slightly up, that must mean more people are cooking at home, which is good for the waistline and the heart.

Perhaps reading enough stories about how fast fashion is not good for the environment, or people wanting to save money are reading about budgeting have led them to cut down on spending too.

Or am I being totally idealistic?

This year is not good for many sectors -- we're all in the same boat. But honestly, who was the one who thought Hong Kong should only concentrate on mainland clientele?

Nothing lasts forever...

Where's the Tourists?

Mickey Mouse must be wondering where all the tourists went...

The Hong Kong government is desperate for tourists.

This is even more evident now with Hong Kong Disneyland (of which the Hong Kong government is a main shareholder) reporting its first loss since 2011, with expectations that visitor numbers will drop even further this year.

This is unfortunately coinciding with the amusement park celebrating its 10th anniversary, as it lost HK$148 million last year, compared to HK$332 million in profits a year earlier.

The park has seen a drop of 23 percent fewer mainland visitors.

"This year will be difficult," said Andrew Kam, Hong Kong Disneyland's managing director. Total visitor numbers to the park were down 9.3 percent to 6.8 million in the fiscal year ending in October 2015 compared to the year before.

Ocean Park is also seeing its profits cut in half. For the fiscal year that ended last June, profit was down 53 percent at HK$45.2 million, and revenue fell slightly to HK$1.97 billion, a drop of HK$600,000 from the previous year.

Competitor Ocean Park has also seen a drop in visitors

Failed chief executive candidate Henry Tang Ying-yen believes the best thing to do is to open the floodgates to allow more mainlanders in Hong Kong. Is this really the solution? This will only get more localists enraged, but really, all those who have been to Disneyland and Ocean Park aren't interested in going again.

And besides, they are probably waiting for Shanghai's Disneyland to open in June, with domestic travel there much cheaper.

Who are we kidding?

Kam is trying to brush off the impending challenge, saying "once you've established your own brands, I think you don't need to worry about the competition", adding there was enough regional demand for both parks.

Really? Surely people will be more interested in Shanghai, as it's brand new and three times bigger.

This is a case of Hong Kong's authorities putting all of its eggs in one basket.

Depending on mainland tourists was naive and hardly prudent. The Hong Kong Tourism Board should have been promoting the city to every other viable market just as aggressively as the Chinese one.

Meanwhile dai pai dongs are a dying breed in the city

And now with the shocking violence that happened last Monday, who wants to go to Hong Kong? Wasn't it supposed to be a safe city?

The HKTB has a lot of work to do to repair the city's image, and also persuade the government that if it wants to bring more tourists in, Hong Kong needs to preserve its cultural heritage and that means street food.

Food is one of the best ways for people to understand a culture and what Hong Kong has to offer cannot be found anywhere else. To kill street food by putting so many restrictions on hawker licenses and dai pai dongs, is killing the city's culture and potential tourism draw.

Hong Kong people are so passionate about their food, why not make this a vital cultural industry? Originally these hawker foods existed to sustain a living, but some are very good and deserve to be encouraged to continue.

Tourists visit Taiwan and Singapore for the food, why not Hong Kong?

It's not all about shopping... and besides, tourism now is about memorable experiences.

Or did the HKTB not get that memo?

Where's Our Vision?

Tung Chee-chen is impressed by Singapore outsmarting Hong Kong...

In the ongoing race between Hong Kong and Singapore, the Lion City has won the latest round in developing the most comprehensive hub for shipping and related business.

According to Tung Chee-chen, chairman of Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL), Hong Kong's strategy was leveraging its strengths in financial services and shipping support service to get more business.

However, Tung said, Singapore lured business away by targeting key companies."For example, Singapore has targeted many Norwegian companies, convincing them to set up offices in Singapore. With word of mouth, more Norwegian companies flocked in."

He added Singapore began this strategy after the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984 when there was uncertainty about Hong Kong's future.

Tung, who's older brother is former Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, added he was struck by Singapore's forward-thinking in expanding its port infrastructure.

"I'm very impressed with the building of the port in the way that Singapore anticipated future growth," he said. "No other countries or ports in the world are contemplating similar investment. Singapore is pulling away from all its competitors."

While Tung is swallowing humble pie gracefully, we have to wonder what Hong Kong's leaders are thinking about when it comes to the city's future.

What plans do they have for Hong Kong 10, 20, 30 years from now? Are they even thinking that far ahead? Or should we really ask, is Beijing thinking that far into the future?

For a business leader to admit Hong Kong was outsmarted by Singapore is embarrassing to say the least.

This also echoes Hong Kong's tourism strategy, warmly welcoming mainland tourists and not searching new markets or wooing back other ones. And now with the slowdown in China, the city is caught flat-footed with the knock-on effect of fewer mainland visitors here and businesses suffering.

So what is our strategy? How is Hong Kong going to continue to thrive, especially in these turbulent times?

Red-Faced Hong Kong

Hollywood director Michael Bay is in Hong Kong filming Transformers 4

This morning some friends woke up very early and wandered around Central to find director Michael Bay shooting Transformers 4 in Hong Kong.

They did find him at Chater Garden and took some snaps that were uploaded on Facebook.

Later in the afternoon I just happened to see a small crew huddled in a corner across from the Bank of China building with lots of uniformed police standing around.

We're assuming there's more security after Bay, 48, was attacked by two locals trying to extort money from him in Quarry Bay earlier this week.

On his blog, Bay explained that every vendor who is inconvenienced by the filming is compensated "a fair price", but then two men made filming difficult by creating lots of noise on the set or purposely bumping into the stars.

Bay says the two demanded four times the amount of compensation and he personally refused to pay them more.

"He didn't like that answer. So an hour later he came by my crew as we were shooting, carrying a long air conditioner unit," blogged the director.

"He walked right up to me and tried to smack my face, but I ducked, threw the air unit on the floor and pushed him away."

Bay then said security tried to subdue the man, but Bay says it took seven men to do this, suggesting the extortionist was drugged up. "It was like a Zombie in Brad Pitt's movie World War Z."

Then according to Bay, the perpetrator lifted seven men and even bit into one of the guard's shoes. In the end it took 15 policemen in riot gear to control the situation.

A police spokeswoman said two brothers surnamed Mak, 27 and 28, approached Bay and demanded HK$100,000 ($12,900).

It was the elder brother who attacked Bay and was arrested on suspicion of assault, while the younger Mak was arrested for suspicion of blackmail and assault.

Bay suffered minor injuries on the right side of his face from the attack and refused medical treatment.

At the end of his blog post, Bay wrote, "After that, we had a great day shooting here in Hong Kong."

Incidents like these are so embarrassing for Hong Kong. We have ambassadors like Andy Lau Tak-wah trying to promote the city as fun and exotic, but then the positive images are thrown by the wayside when a few rotten apples crop up.

Perhaps the Hong Kong Tourism Board is bending over backwards for Bay and his crew in order to ensure this doesn't happen again. And if it isn't, it should -- We can't afford the negative publicity.