Long-awaited lifting of Mainland Chinese border restrictions will provide a massive tailwind for Hong Kong, particularly for especially for the tourism, hospitality and retail industries.

Hong Kong has a long history of maintaining its status as an important global business hub, adapting continually to changing conditions and being economically competitive and attractive for business growth.

Undoubtedly, 2023 will be the year of opportunities for the hospitality sector in Asia’s World City.

We expect the year ahead to gravitate around the following trends:

Visitors from Mainland China should return strongly to Hong Kong, starting the second quarter of 2023, boosted by pent-up demand and ease of access. Similarly, corporate and MICE travel from Asia and the rest of the world will continue its strong recovery this year.

Hotels in Hong Kong are expected to be agile and adapt to visitation trends in terms of product offerings and hotel operations. This includes optimising sales and yielding strategies to last-minute bookings, especially from Mainland Chinese, meeting requirements of both long-stay and short-stay guests with agile products such as co-living. It will also require operators to navigate operational pains experienced all around the world during ramping up: labour and supply chains.

Hotel transaction activity in Hong Kong will likely pick up in the last quarter of 2023, with an expected USD 1 billion transaction volume for the whole year, after several years driven by conversions and limited liquidity.

For more insights on the Hong Kong hospitality market, download the report.