Overtourism in Hong Kong - Part 2 One year later
The situation has gotten worse since May 2024
Me Jamie, your host, I am English and I have lived in Hong Kong for 53 years - I know the place.
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Overtourism in Hong Kong - Part 2 One year later
The situation has gotten worse since May 2024
click on the image to enlarge
This image above and below were taken by my great friend Stephanie of Hong Kong A La Carte Tours who also run quality Private Tours of Hong Kong, this image was taken on May 2nd 2025 at 10.45am at the Garden Road Terminus (and for the Star Ferry Image in the mid afternoon on the same day) where you catch the iconic Peak Tram up to Victoria Peak. The terminus building holds 1,300 people and this queue was outside the building, there was probably anywhere from 400 - 500 people OUTSIDE the terminus results in a 2 hour wait for an 8 minute ride.
Overtourism in Hong Kong May 3rd 2025
If you read the news reports in the past week in Hong Kong, a 2 hour wait for the Peak Tram to go to Victoria Peak and the Star Ferry completely overwhelmed and nobody seems to care, all they care about is numbers and to them hordes of tourists is success, it vindicates their policies, it is a pity that they do not seem to want to eat in restaurants or buy from our struggling shops
Quality not Quantity should be the goal.
It does not seem to occur to anyone in the Government that people are very unhappy to wait for 2 hours to ride on the iconic Peak Tram and they will take to social media to vent their feelings which are entirely justified
Report in Dim Sum Daily in Hong Kong
May 6th 2025 - a report on tourism in the past week
“6th May 2025 – (Hong Kong) Hong Kong has once again proven its status as a global tourism hub, welcoming over 1.1 million visitors during the mainland’s May Day Golden Week holiday—a 22% increase compared to the same period last year. Chief Executive John Lee announced the figures on Tuesday, describing the week as “prosperous in both popularity and purse.” The surge in visitors, which included a 20% rise in mainland tourists and a 30% increase in non-mainland arrivals, underscores the city’s enduring appeal as a destination for travellers of all kinds.
However, the record-breaking numbers also highlight the need for a nuanced approach to tourism management. While the influx of visitors has provided a significant economic boost, it has also exposed challenges, particularly in crowd management and infrastructure. Lee has called for a comprehensive review of the holiday period’s logistics, directing the Culture, Sports, and Tourism Bureau (CSTB) and other relevant departments to collaborate with industry stakeholders. Their findings will be presented to an interdepartmental working group on festival arrangements, led by the Chief Secretary for Administration, to refine future tourism planning.
One of the key themes of Lee’s address was the importance of inclusivity in Hong Kong’s tourism strategy. “If we give the impression that the city only welcomes a certain type of visitor, it could harm our reputation and make Hong Kong less appealing overall,” he said. This statement comes in response to reports of budget-conscious tourists, particularly from mainland China, who have been staying overnight in fast-food restaurants like McDonald’s due to financial constraints. While this trend has sparked debate about the sustainability of such tourism, Lee emphasised that all visitors should be treated with equal warmth and respect.
“Whether they are high-end or budget travellers, we should embrace them. Even if their spending is modest this time, they may return and contribute more in the future,” he added. This inclusive approach aligns with Hong Kong’s broader goal of positioning itself as a welcoming and accessible destination for all.”
The article goes on for a few more paragraphs but the above highlights the issues precisely.
A familiar sign over the years at the NP 360 Cable Car to go to the Big Buddha on Lantau Island and this is the wait to get to the ticketing office, once purchased you have a lengthy wait to get on the cable car!
Overtourism in Hong Kong one year on from May 2024
A totally perfunctory and expected statement from Hong Kong’s Chief Executive who naturally has to look at the big picture but his team are not thinking outside the box, there is a simple solution to make things better. see below.
What more data does the Government need?
They have visitor arrivials records going back over 30 years and the key component of this is that for well over a decade Mainland Chinese Tourists were roughly 80% of the arrivals
10 years ago they shopped with long lines outside luxury boutiques
Now they take selfies and travel on the cheap and pretty much avoid buying anything
Perhaps the Tourism Bureau (s) can station teams of workers on random days, public holidays and weekends at all the major tourist sites and take videos and perhaps even engage tourists with some pertinent questions!
These are very popular places in Hong Kong
Victoria Peak
NP 360 and the Big Buddha and Tai O
Disneyland
Ocean Park
The Star Ferry
To Kwa Wan | Hung Hom
Avenue of the Stars
Kennedy Town
.. and to many other places to count which are also overrun
They should not just think about the impact on residents but also on other tourists visiting Hong Kong
With a visual record of the mayhem it might make decision making easier and the questions they should be asking is how do we cope during those times when Mainland Chinese people have long holidays as they have had in the past week, what if the number of visitors for the May holiday week in 2026 increases by 70%, how can we make it better for everyone and have better crowd management.
It is not rocket science
Oh and yes, the other thing that places can do is find a way to spread out the people going to the attraction by having pricing that is more expensive during peak hours.
In 2024 the Peak Tram was doing this and quietly abandoned it in 2025 for no reason that I can think of other than it is more profitable to have the same price no matter what time of the day you go on the tram and why are charging a lot more because it is the weekend or a public holiday, so with the Peak Tram now and by extension the Peak Tower for the view they charge a very high price and they charge an outrageous price for a skip the line Ruby Pass!
The Peak Tram Company actually called it 2 tier pricing!
click on the image to enlarge
This is a news article from 6 months ago and yes, the Peak Tram is a private company and the comments from the Peak Tram Management are pure bs, the customer does did NOT win and is paying higher prices and facing long waiting times.
… and yes they are doing deals on the special ruby line skip the line ticket if you buy online!
click on the image to enlarge
The simple solution I mentioned above
Personally I think the Government should insist on real time online camera feeds at all the places listed above so people can decide themselves which would be a good time to go, no one wants to wait in a line for 2 hours for an 8 minutes ride on the Peak Tram or Star Ferry, this is the sort of technology solutions they should be looking at
So as a visitor you have to take into consideration the situation with regards to long lines at popular attractions
click on the image to enlarge
I took this image in 2019 when the whole Victoria Peak experience was diminished by overtourism, I never thought it could get worse than this, it has, these mob scenes of people waiting for the Peak Tram are now more frequent and much worse than 2019.
I witnessed this first hand on May 1st 2025 when I was at the Peak.
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