In this podcast, the president of Wharf Hotels Jennifer Cronin speaks about Hong Kong’s effective containment of Covid-19, how it can serve as a model for restarting travel, the formation of a co-funded Heritage Tourism Fund and the rise of women leadership.

Hong Kong, as a destination, has been hit hard on two fronts – last year, by the political protests and now, with Covid-19 bringing tourism to its knees.

In February, tourist arrivals dived to a new low – on March 16, the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) announced that the provisional figure for visitor arrivals to Hong Kong in February plummeted 96.4% from the year-ago period to 199,000 – the daily average during peak season in 2019. This figure is far lower than the 427,000 arrivals in May 2003, during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak.

Acknowledging the challenges posed by Covid-19, which has resulted in closed borders to incoming arrivals, Cronin, who sits on a couple of recovery taskforces, said that the HKTB was using this opportunity to review its “longer term repositioning”.

In an interview for The WiT Podcast, Cronin said, “In the various task forces that I’m now participating in, we really talk about how to communicate outside of Hong Kong what is happening, how we’ve been able to manage Covid-19 containment and to share that Hong Kong is just not about the high rises around Victoria Harbour, it’s made up of 265 islands. It’s got the most incredible hiking experiences.”

She said that the Heritage Tourism Board Group has put together a fund to drive a digital and video campaign to showcase “the beauty of Hong Kong, not just the hustle and bustle, but all of the other experiences that we have never really emphasised enough”.

Private sector bodies involved in the group has made a monetary contribution to the fund and the HKTB will also be supporting it, she said.

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