Negative Impact Of Tourism In Hong Kong

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Impacts of tourism in Hong Kong is a heated topic, and it usually escalates into issues like autonomy of Hong Kong and Mainland Hong Kong conflict, which are much more serious and heated topic among Hong Kong people. From this, the importance of this topic is clearly seen. In this essay negative impacts of tourism in Hong Kong will be discussed with reference to the photo above. The above photo was taken at the Streets of Causeway Bay, one of the busiest areas in Hong Kong. In this corner of Yee Woo Street, there are three shops, the two on the right are selling luxurious watches, while the one on the very left, with a neon light banner, is a pharmacy. These shops are welcomed by the tourist from Mainland China. The first negative impact …show more content…

Firstly, is loss of cultural identity. As shops are becoming increasingly similar, the distinct character of different regions will disappear. To make matters worse, the streets of Hong Kong are becoming increasingly occupied with shops which are unable to showcase local elements such as traditional practices, food...etc, it will decrease Hong Kong's attractiveness as a tourist destination, especially in cultural terms. As a result, culture of Hong Kong will no longer serve as a pull factor for tourists, as the cultural distinctiveness has been weakened or even removed by domination of shops that Mainland tourist …show more content…

Firstly, this reduced the opportunities for small and medium sized retailers, as they can’t afford to rent a space to run their business, hindering the diversity of the economy of Hong Kong. This also impede people’s opportunity to improve their living standards and the upward mobility of the society. Secondly, high rent will reinforce the issue of homogenization of shops, as only a few types of shops can afford the rent, if these shops don’t rent the retain spaces, then nobody else would. All of the above negative impacts will cause the increase in irridex of locals. Currently, the irridex of Hong Kong locals are somewhere at stage 3 or 4, given several waves of anti tourist movement in places with high presence of Mainland tourists, such as Sheung Shui, Sha Tin (Tsang, A. (2015, February 16). There are also protests demanding the government to reduce the amount of Mainland tourist allowed into Hong Kong. To conclude, the photo indicated two negative impacts of tourism in Hong Kong, which are homogenization of shops and rapid rise of rent. These negative impacts are mostly social impacts. It is also found that these two impacts are interlinked, as rapid rise of rent reinforces homogenization of

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