News Forum - Hong Kong tourism nears pre-pandemic levels

[Thaiger]

Hong Kong’s tourism sector continues its fight for revival as the number of visits during the Labour Day golden week holiday reached only 66.8% of the pre-pandemic levels. Despite the ongoing struggle, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po assured the government’s commitment to promoting the city’s mega-event economy and attracting more tourists. This comes after the … …

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[LeReynard]

I reverted saw "New Port City" for myself. I want to see the road signage, but the 'city of darkness' was gone before I was old enough to visit. That and you no longer see planes flying so low over skyscrapers, to Kai Tak. Hong Kong's most iconic sights are this bygone memories, captured on film to feed the collective imaginination years later.

Some places, you find or suspect, are cooler to imagine than to visit, at least by the time you're old or wealthy enough to visit.

By the time I visited Singapore, some of the places I dreamed of were gone, not least the bird gardens. I felt lukewarm upon leaving her, if only I had visited her in my teens.

Edited May 7 by LeReynard

[LeReynard]

Is it true, by the way, that if you flew into Kai Tak, you could see inside people's windows as your plane approached the runway? Because that must have been epic and win. But it also sounds like one of those experiences, 'grows with the tellin', unquestioned because of the perspective in photos of aircraft coming in, maybe staring as a joke.

[Grumpish]

35 minutes ago, LeReynard said:

Is it true, by the way, that if you flew into Kai Tak, you could see inside people's windows as your plane approached the runway? Because that must have been epic and win. But it also sounds like one of those experiences, 'grows with the tellin', unquestioned because of the perspective in photos of aircraft coming in, maybe staring as a joke.

From memory - not quite, but not far off. I transited through Kai Tak quite few times in the late eighties and nineties, usually on standby (back when I got cheap travel as British Airways staff), always liked the landing over the city centre, but thought the airport must have been a bit of nightmare for the pilots.

[LeReynard]

13 minutes ago, Grumpish said:

From memory - not quite, but not far off. I transited through Kai Tak quite few times in the late eighties and nineties, usually on standby (back when I got cheap travel as British Airways staff), always liked the landing over the city centre, but thought the airport must have been a bit of nightmare for the pilots.

That sounds f*****g awesome. Both the landing at Kai Tak and being aeroplane staff. Were you a pilot?

[Grumpish]

2 hours ago, LeReynard said:

That sounds f*****g awesome. Both the landing at Kai Tak and being aeroplane staff. Were you a pilot?

Ground staff - IT, so I didn't even get to see airside most of the time. But made a lot of use of the cheap travel perk. 

[LeReynard]

7 minutes ago, Grumpish said:

Ground staff - IT, so I didn't even get to see airside most of the time. But made a lot of use of the cheap travel perk. 

How much was the ticket to HK, and from where, may I ask? How much did you save on flights?

[Grumpish]

i was based at London Heathrow, I quit working for BA twenty years back (I saw the writing on the wall as the sacred cow of outsourcing started to take over) but back then a return standby for somewhere like HKG was around £100 - the downside was that you only got to fly if there were empty seats, and it was not unusual to be stuck for two or three days waiting for a flight home.

[LeReynard]

14 minutes ago, Grumpish said:

i was based at London Heathrow, I quit working for BA twenty years back (I saw the writing on the wall as the sacred cow of outsourcing started to take over) but back then a return standby for somewhere like HKG was around £100 - the downside was that you only got to fly if there were empty seats, and it was not unusual to be stuck for two or three days waiting for a flight home.

Sounds like a cool deal