Great Idea but you will see & learn very little about Hong Kong

**Me Jamie, your host, I am English and I have lived in Hong Kong since January 2nd 1972 - I know the place.**

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Hong Kong International Airport - Free Layover Tours

Great Idea but you will see & learn very little about Hong Kong

click on the image to enlarge

Free Layover Tours | Hong Kong International Airport | Hong Kong

A great idea but frankly, a waste of time.

The Hong Kong Tourism Board and related agencies always claim rather lamely that we are not in competition with Singapore, what piffle, of course we are and to be brutally honest Singapore is way ahead of Hong Kong when it comes to promoting tourism or more to the point offering something different and interesting.

The Hong Kong Tourism Board has a massive budget and to me anyway wastes far too much time and money on inviting so called influencers (whatever that means and yes I am being sarcastic)

The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) has invited over 440 influencers in 2025 so far, with different figures for specific campaigns. For the first quarter, over 650 influencers, media, and partners were invited, while the summer campaign alone involved more than 100 influencers from 13 countries and regions

Apparently these influencers have a combined following of 440 million people

No disrespect to these “influencers” but seriously, I have looked at a lot of their posts and I just roll my eyes, then again I am a lot older than their target audience which presumably is young people.

I doubt they have much impact on visitor numbers as our numbers are still almost 20 million below the best year back in 2018.

So when it comes to a free layover tour you should note that The Free Singapore Tour was first introduced in 1987 by Changi Airport Group (CAG) in collaboration with Singapore Airlines (SIA) and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) to attract transfer passengers

So Hong Kong, 38 years later now offers a free layover tour by Trip.com

The Hong Kong Tourism Board or the Hong Kong International Airport have never offered this service, Cathay Pacific Airline a few years back offered free or discounted tours but it was a very limited offer and was discontinued very quickly.

This new service launched in September 2025 is offered by Trip.Com a large OTA (Online Travel Agent) and they are not doing it out of the goodness of their heart, they will no doubt want you at some stage to sign up on their site and avail yourselvers to their impressive offerings, they hint at collaboration with the Airport Authority, I am guessing that means getting free space in the pre arrival hall once you have cleared customs and immigration to register and such.

Now, let me be clear, it is a great idea as the vast majority of layover | transit passengers choose to twiddle their thumbs at the airport for 2 - 14 hours (or more) but no disrespect to Trip.com which was founded in 1999 and based in Shanghai in China, they know bugger all about tourism in Hong Kong and more importantly doing tours

I am guessing their target audience is foreign tourists and not Mainland Chinese Tourists the majority of whom cross over our border on foot or train or coach.

I appreciate that the timing of the tours is a complex issue and I have no doubt that they did test runs when it came to choosing the itinerary for the 2 tours on offer, but seriously I am not impressed

For the record I have been doing private tours for 15 years with 2,350+ tours under my belt and I have done many layover tours as well so I know a bit about itineraries and timing.

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Free Layover Tours | Day Tour | Hong Kong

Based on my own experience, a lot of visitors from the USA, Europe etc arrive in the early hours of the morning and if they are in transit a 12pm start time is much too late to start a tour, I have lost count of the number of times I have been at the Airport to greet guests at between 7am - 8am, personally they should start the tour at 9am or even 10am

The big problem they have is that the airport is a long way from town and getting to the 2 places in this itinerary will take at least an hour each way (depending on traffic) as traffic between Wong Tai Sin and Sham Shui Po can be a problem, at best you will have 45 minutes at each place.

Now, the 2 places on the itinerary are just fine, I love the Wong Tai Sin Temple, it is an amazing place but to be honest I very rarely go to Sham Shui Po, it is actually more famous for it’s food tours than cultural tours but that is just me.

With the 4 hours of the tour they could easily visit Victoria Peak the most popular place to visit in Hong Kong for the City Views and the bus ride up there is very interesting!

However, this is not the main point, which is quite simple

The quality of your Hong Kong Tour | Experience is absolutely dependent on the quality of the guide that Trip.com chooses to run the tour

… and honestly because this is a free tour I doubt very much that they will offer up a private tour guide who has done thousands of tours and really knows Hong Kong, it will undoubtedly be a wet behind the ears youngster who will regale you with a memorised script on the coach journey there and back and probably with only passable English (and yes I have been on many coach tours in Hong Kong for research purposes) oh and it will be more than likely that they will ask for a tip

Still. at least the drive is interesting!

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Free Layover Tours | Day - Night Tour | Hong Kong

With this Day - Night Tour, again, I am not sure about the timing, all I know is that I have never been back to the Airport later than 5pm!

What is perplexing is the itinerary

The West Kowloon Cultural District is on a very odd location and it is where a lot of museums are located and it does have a promenade of sorts where you can get a great view of Hong Kong Island at night

However this is simply a duplication of the Avenue of the Stars, that promenade has simply the second best panoramic view in Hong Kong which is of Hong Kong Island across Victoria Harbour in Kowloon, the view from the Avenue of the Stars is far superior to the West Kowloon Cultural District and the vibe at night on the Avenue of Stars is awesone!

The itinerary has room to delete the West Kowloon Cultural District and replace it with a visit to the Temple Street Night Market which is very short drive away from the Avenue of the Stars - the market and its new street food section are a lot of fun!

….. again, this is not the main point, which is quite simple

The quality of your Hong Kong Tour | Experience is absolutely dependent on the quality of the guide that Trip.com chooses to run the tour

… and honestly because this is a free tour I doubt very much that they will offer up a private tour guide who has done thousands of tours and really knows Hong Kong, it will undoubtedly be a wet behind the ears youngster who will regale you with a memorised script on the coach journey there and back and probably with only passable English (and yes I have been on many coach tours in Hong Kong for research purposes) oh and it will be more than likely that they will ask for a tip

Still. at least the drive is interesting!

So there you go, my honest appraisal, a great idea but it could be a lot better