McTourists or Millionaire Visitors, Hong Kong Needs Them All

Reviving the city's tourism requires accepting, not shunning, budget-conscious travellers.

- Magdalene Fung

Over China's recent May Day "golden week" long holiday, Hong Kong saw a welcome surge in visitors, with a 20 per cent jump in mainland Chinese tourists.

Hotel revenues rose accordingly, with broadcaster TVB News featuring some mainland tourists disclosing that they had not booked rooms beforehand and would simply spend the night at McDonald's if accommodation prices proved too high.

Soon enough, photos of budget mainland tourists hunkering down overnight at Hong Kong's 24-hour McDonald's outlets made their rounds online, generating heated debate.

About 50 such tourists were spotted sleeping at one McDonald's branch in the Tsim Sha Tsui shopping district in Kowloon that weekend, news outlet HK01 reported.

Local netizens castigated the McTourists: "If you're so broke, don't come!"

Some internet users called for sympathy. "Most of them are probably young people who don't have a lot of money," one wrote.

Others were less forgiving. "Folks in Hong Kong call them 'Gang of Beggars'; they can come but can't afford to spend," read another comment.

HONG KONG COULD BENEFIT FROM MORE TOURISTS

Budget travellers who sleep in public areas or put up at business establishments are not unheard of.

Tourists regularly do so at bathhouses in South Korea, spas and saunas in mainland China, and capsule hotels in Japan—although hordes of holidaymakers playing vagabond at fast-food outlets are less commonplace.

But while the McTourists in Hong Kong may have taken budget travel to an extreme, their patronage is still of value.

Hong Kong's battered tourism industry is still in recovery mode and has only in recent months started to record more encouraging numbers.