HONG KONG -- Following a cascade of delicious dishes at Cafe Bau, his sleek restaurant on Hong Kong Island, "Demon Chef" Alvin Leung was parsing the ingredients needed for a Hong Kong comeback.
The visitor base is still rebuilding, and shortages from staffing to taxis have affected operating hours. But, the Michelin-starred chef said, fresh takes such as his farm-to-table cuisine as well as Hong Kong's tax-free purchases are helping.
"There's a diversity of top-notch food and value for money," Leung said.
And while Cafe Bau is named for Hong Kong's emblematic Bauhinia flower, he cited a hopeful acronym: "Business as usual."
Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, was one of the last destinations to reopen to tourism when it did so in March, said Michael Lim, director for the Americas at the Hong Kong Tourism Board.
North America is the No. 1 long-haul market, he said, and U.S. arrivals in 2023 had only reached 44% against January-October averages for 2018 and 2019.
The slow return of travelers is one of several issues facing Hong Kong. As a local newspaper headline put it: "Weak trade, visitor arrivals crimping growth."
Destination: Hong Kong, on the verge of a strong comeback
For those who do come, they will find a city that is ready for them.
"I think Hong Kong never slept during the pandemic," Lim said. "We need to continue to excite the audience with new products. We're ready to invest heavily in America."
And so, after travel advisors, operators and a handful of press arrived in November on Cathay Pacific flights, they and a merry band of tourism board reps navigated a weeklong triad of arts/culture, food and outdoor experiences.
The goal: shifting the perception of Hong Kong from gateway to a destination unto itself.
"It's all about experiences," Lim said.
Art, dining, lofty views
My memorable arts exposure featured the stunning trapezoidal Hong Kong Palace Museum in the West Kowloon Cultural District. Built during the shutdown, the museum houses striking artifacts from ancient villages in China's Sichuan region, on display until next August, that have been made more vivid by 3D drone footage, shimmering backlighting and excellent docent explanations.
Sampling the high end of Hong Kong's 17,000-plus eateries included the chandeliered elegance of the Chinese Library's dining room. Then again, a foodie tour of mom-and-pop restaurants in the working-class Sham Shui Po neighborhood offered tasty dumplings, baked goods and noodles. Tours remained down, our affable guide said, but her shirt's #hongkongbelly hashtag was truth in packaging.
Outdoors -- the third pillar of our trip -- can include the name-brand skyline, with the world's largest number of skyscrapers, reflecting the city's global financial status.
Reopened in 2022, a sixth-generation Peak Tram runs from the Central District to a harbor-facing view up Victoria Peak. Beware of the selfie-stick hordes as sunset approaches.
A more serene excursion to Lantau Island combined riding within the glass-enclosed Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car, one of Asia's longest, and contemplation of the Big Buddha at the Po Lin Monastery. It was an under-construction steel skeleton when I visited in the early 1990s; now the imposing yet tranquil statue in the lotus position rises 112 feet on a bucolic, hilly setting.
Operators were impressed.
"Resiliency -- all the work they did to prepare for post-Covid," said first-time visitor Taylor Hub, the Chicago-based product manager for Asia at Abercrombie & Kent. "Historically, we've offered Hong Kong as a stopover -- three days, two nights to do the main highlights. Now I really understand all that Hong Kong has to offer; there's something for every interest."
Chris Wang, co-founder of Toronto's Trip Connoisseurs, first visited Hong Kong in 1984 (my first time was 1987).
"Hong Kong, for the Caucasian mainstream market, is the gateway to Asia, with great food and shopping," he said during the trip. "I never thought about the other side, like [hiking in] the national park and the experimental, hands-on activities [neon art to cooking classes]. Now we realize that Hong Kong has a much wider variety of things you can experience."
Where to stay
During Covid, staycations supported many hotels, as did Chinese guests once mainlanders could visit after Chinese New Year in 2023.
Three five-star hotels exemplified the high end of post-Covid recovery, each with 80% or so occupancy. One of them, the Hari Hong Kong in Wan Chai, made its debut just as the pandemic took hold.
"Actually, the hotel opened on the day that the government closed all the restaurants, on the 12th of December three years ago," Edward Snoeks, general manager of the tasteful, art-laden, 210-room property, recounted wryly.
Close to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, the Hari attracts Europeans and East Asians, with Chinese clientele currently at 28% and Americans at 5% to 6%. While business-driven stays average 2.4 days, Snoeks pointed to "quite a loyal following, and our leisure business has been very good for us. We try not to be the cookie-cutter model."
A few blocks away, the AKI Hong Kong -- MGallery, under the Accor Group, opened in July 2022. Its 173 rooms include soothing tatami setups, offering what complex director of sales Anna Cheung called "something with style to stay relaxed."
Airline limitations have affected client behavior, Cheung said.
"Before was so international. Now, more than 50% are from China; they come to the convention and stay one night." International guests "come for the convention leisure gatherings and stay three or four or five nights."
On the Kowloon side of the city, a renovation during Covid at the 468-room New World Millennium yielded the ample, well-lit, harborview room that served as my hosted base camp.
Here the 80%-plus occupancy rate was expected to rise over the fourth-quarter trade show season. "We expect travel to be blooming," said director of marketing communications Mona Kwan, who cited seven-night packages aimed at long-haul guests.
Director of sales and marketing Christine Lee is working with the tourism board to enrich such stays.
"Before it was always shopping, shopping, shopping. Now it's more like experience, experience, experience," she said, referring to changes in visitor preferences.
"I think we have more to offer nowadays," she added. "There are new experiences within the museums, and you can have an action-packed day on a farm or a hike."
Laudie Hanou, senior vice president of Encino, Calif.'s SITA World Tours, said SITA has inquiries and bookings into 2024, with several groups in the works, and operated several multigenerational-family trips in 2023, when Hong Kong first reopened.
She first visited Hong Kong in 1997, the year Britain transferred the colony to China, and said this visit stoked her enthusiasm.
"The concept of two to three nights in Hong Kong is perhaps now dated, considering the extensive new product and experience curated over the last few years," Hanou said. "Hong Kong's rebirth deserves an in-depth and lengthy stay."