Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Hong Kong was known as a “shopping paradise.” But since lifting all anti-epidemic measures early last year, the city has struggled to live up to its reputation.
Last month, 70 per cent of small and medium enterprises surveyed by the Hong Kong Small and Medium Enterprises Association and Junior Chamber International Hong Kong said their income had dropped below pre-pandemic levels.
“Factors such as the rising trend of northbound travel among Hongkongers, international trade disputes, the emigration wave, and labour shortages, have brought a considerable impact to the business environment and marketing activities of SMEs,” the two organisations behind the survey said.
Provisional retail sales for April were at their lowest since the full border reopening last February, indicating a year-on-year decline of 14.7 per cent. A government spokesperson pointed to an increase in outbound trips over the Easter holidays as a way of explaining that downturn.
“When residents made outbound trips, it not only affected their local consumption during their time away but also could have reduced consumption in the days before and after the trips,” they said. “In addition, in the initial period of normal travel resumption, the length of stay of inbound visitors was longer and their per capita spending was also higher.”
While finance chief Paul Chan recently said there were signs that the city’s economic outlook was improving, the sheer number of shuttered shops plastered with the phone numbers of real estate agents paints a different picture.
Words: Mercedes Hutton
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