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Every year, thousands of mainland tourists flood into Hong Kong during the Qingming Festival holiday, but this year, the number of tourist groups has dropped by 20 percent compared with last year. And the number of tourist arrivals last month also saw a year-on-year 9 percent slump1.
Joseph Tung, executive director of the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong, says the city's tourism industry is experiencing its hardest time since the "SARS" pandemic in 2003.
"We haven't seen such sharp drop since SARS. I think there are two factors. On one hand, the currencies in neighboring countries are depreciating2, while Hong Kong dollars are relatively3 strong. On the other hand, the protests against parallel goods traders and some impolite behavior towards visitors have left the impression that they are not welcome in Hong Kong. "
Official figures show that retail4 sales in January went down nearly 15 percent from a year ago, with sales of jewelry5 and watches plunging6 21 percent.
香港推广旅游业
A shop owner in the prime shopping area of Causeway Bay for the past decade says she feels the chill recently.
"It is not as busy and crowded as it used to be. The number of individual tourists is falling. The other countries are opening up to mainland people, so they go to other places rather than coming to Hong Kong."
As a result, the official organization overseeing tourism in the city, the Hong Kong Tourism Board, is planning to make campaigns together with restaurants and retail stores during the summer holiday, to attract tourists with discounts and other preferential policies.
President of the Hong Kong Federation7 of Restaurants and Related Trades Simon Wong hopes the government can work with tourism insiders to boost consumption.
"We have 24-thousand restaurants providing different kinds of food. It is important to have a common goal but we don't have enough resources to make it on our own. We had a successful lottery8 campaign in Hong Kong restaurants before, with the participation9 of lawmakers. "
Hong Kong Disneyland is actively10 promoting in Thailand and Philippines, and will fine tune11 its strategies in line with market demand.
Due to sluggish12 sales, rental13 rates in Causeway Bay, which was crowned as the highest rent street in the world back in 2012, has declined by 10 to 15 percent, and is expected to drop more if consumption does not pick up soon.
For CRI, this is Li Jing in Hong Kong.
点击收听单词发音
1 slump | |
n.暴跌,意气消沉,(土地)下沉;vi.猛然掉落,坍塌,大幅度下跌 | |
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2 depreciating | |
v.贬值,跌价,减价( depreciate的现在分词 );贬低,蔑视,轻视 | |
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3 relatively | |
adv.比较...地,相对地 | |
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4 retail | |
v./n.零售;adv.以零售价格 | |
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5 jewelry | |
n.(jewllery)(总称)珠宝 | |
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6 plunging | |
adj.跳进的,突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降 | |
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7 federation | |
n.同盟,联邦,联合,联盟,联合会 | |
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8 lottery | |
n.抽彩;碰运气的事,难于算计的事 | |
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9 participation | |
n.参与,参加,分享 | |
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10 actively | |
adv.积极地,勤奋地 | |
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11 tune | |
n.调子;和谐,协调;v.调音,调节,调整 | |
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12 sluggish | |
adj.懒惰的,迟钝的,无精打采的 | |
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13 rental | |
n.租赁,出租,出租业 | |
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