Listen Up, Hong Kong, Here Comes Macau
Hong Kongers like to feel superior to vice-ridden Macau. It is time to get over that because when it comes to tourism development, Hong Kong has a lot to learn from its neighbor

Here is a tale of two cities that will gladden the hearts of believers in free markets. In one city the but government has poured billions of dollars into building tourist attractions and been rewarded with a modest increase in visitor arrivals, in the other the government has hardly dipped into its budget but allowed the private sector to do all the heavy lifting and has seen tourism expand by a breathtaking degree.

Last year Macau received 21.99 million visitors, setting a new record and registering a 14.6 per cent increase over the previous year. Hong Kong, meanwhile, saw visitor arrivals rise to 25.2 million, an increase of 7.5 per cent over 2005. Meanwhile in the first month of this year visitor arrivals in Hong Kong contracted by 1 per cent while Macau’s arrivals soared by 22.7 per cent.

It is dangerous to read too much into a single month’s record but the trend is clear ‑ Macau is outpacing Hong Kong’s visitor business by a healthy margin.

Asia Sentinel, China