Contemporary Hotel and Tourism Issues

Question: Discuss about theContemporary Hotel and Tourism Issues. Answer: Housing Development Being an administrative section of China, Hong Kong is a very popular destination for many travelers. In fact, tourism has played a major contribution to the economic growth of Hong Kong. As such, the hotel industry has been on an upward growth in order to accommodate the increasing number of visitors (Gerlach and Peng, 2005). However, the luxurious hotels have been facing challenges due to increasing changes in tourist patterns. Most travelers come to Hong Kong to do shopping. As a result, they are not willing to spend so much on accommodation, indicating that they may not be ready to pay for luxurious hotels. This translates to these visitors opting for middle-class hotels for accommodation. This would require the hotel owners to put on strategies that accommodate the dynamic visitor changes and patterns. With different generations facing different preferences for hotel selection, with the young generation being the majority of the hotel customers, on the other hand, the generation Y is very demanding and has high expectations. Being the most emotional, this generation is least satisfied yet a very loyal class of customers. They are not ready to pay more money for accommodation but they insist on value. Having grown in the era of technology, this generation does not give value to the interpersonal services but rather they prefer the automatic check-in and free Wi-Fi. For quite some, the number of guests has been on the decline due to a shaking economy of Hong Kong. Therefore the plans that were underway in an attempt to convert old industrial buildings into hotels are thus being abandoned by the developers (Mok et al., 1995). In fact, almost half of these hotels that were being planned for construction have been left. Moreover, the increased costs of construction have been linked to the decline in accommodation services. It is important to note that the property prices in Hong Kong are very, which could have a direct effect on the availability of accommodation. There is an imbalance between demand and supply of land. For instance, the majority of the land in Hong Kong is underdeveloped although the government insists on a shortage of land. So once the government provides infrastructure and transport services to all parts of Hong Kong, then most of the land will be used to develop real estate (Yiu et al., 2013). As a result of this imbalance, the limited accessible land is not able to accommodate enough accommodation facilities for such an increasing population. The property prices are fueled by an increase in the number of wealthy Chinese investors and low-interest rates. This means that the prices of housing facilities affect many aspects in any society. In fact, the high housing facilities in Hong Kong is regarded to be the highest in the world (Lau and Murie, 2016). There are fears that the youths might not be able to afford their own homes at the current rate. An aspect of market failure can also be seen and the government of Hong Kong needs to put strategies in place to ensure that the private accommodation facilities are affordable (Jim and Chen, 2009). This would include the construction of housing facilities that are cheap as well as the establishment of new towns outside the central business region. Moreover, the government needs to lower the regulations that lead to an increase in the housing facilities construction. Since all the land in Hong Kong is owned by the government, then it can lease it at affordable terms and make regulations on the type of developments to be made on the land (Cheung et al., 2016). A large number of people in Hong Kong are basically primary property owners and have an investment property. Those who do not own property are unsure of the possibilities of owning property in future. What this means is that it is ac tually difficult to enter the property market, creating an uneven housing facilities provision. Tourist Experiences The development of tourism in Hong Kong has benefited it by the creation of many employment opportunities. This then leads to the development of other businesses such as transport, food, and beverage as well as accommodation. However, there are also negative effects of Hong Kong being a tourist destination. For instance, there are some tourists who come to commit crimes while some pregnant women from the mainland of China come to deliver in Hong Kong occupying many hospital beds. It is the responsibility of the Hong Kong tourism commission to ensure that the customer experiences are improved through the development of events and new sites of attraction. However recently, there has been a decline in the number of visitors coming to Hong Kong (Zhang and Kulendran, 2017). Being a very expensive city, Hong Kong has also recorded a low number of Chinese tourists turn out. The accommodation facilities are very high while the food is not of preferred quality and equally expensive. Some tour ists argue there are more affordable and interesting cities to choose from apart from Hong Kong. So far, the major attraction which has remained peculiar to tourist going to Hong Kong is the shopping experience. This city on the South Coast of China has been regarded as the all round world stop over due to its tax and sales tax-free shopping. The absence of the sales tax makes the purchase of some luxurious goods from Hong Kong cheaper than buying from the wholesale shops in the individual tourists's countries. The flowers are also a bit affordable from Hong Kong which makes their demand to be high all year round (Shen et al., 2016). The local flower markets in Hong Kong are now high because at least people can use flowers for various occasions. However, there are important attractions like the museum which gives an understanding of the long and complex history of Hong Kong. They also indicate the archeology, religion and social life of the residents of Hong Kong. A food tour is also attractive especially after taking rounds in a car taking a view of the skyline. Hong Kong has a variety of foods that range from all regions of the world. Something else worth noting is the Tsim Sha Tsui Waterfront and the Avenue of stars, where one can see the stars of the Chinese film. Reference List Cheung, L., Chow, K., Cheng, M. and Ng, P.K., 2016. Inflation mechanism and monetary policy: perspectives from Hong Kong. Gerlach, S. and Peng, W., 2005. Bank lending and property prices in Hong Kong. Journal of Banking Finance, 29(2), pp.461-481. Jim, C.Y. and Chen, W.Y., 2009. Value of scenic views: Hedonic assessment of private housing in Hong Kong. Landscape and Urban Planning, 91(4), pp.226-234. Lau, K.Y. and Murie, A., 2016. Residualisation and resilience: public housing in Hong Kong. Housing Studies, pp.1-25. Mok, H.M., Chan, P.P. and Cho, Y.S., 1995. A hedonic price model for private properties in Hong Kong. The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 10(1), pp.37-48. Shen, H., Li, X., Luo, J.M. and Chau, K.Y., 2016. One country, two strata: Implications of social and cultural conflicts of Chinese outbound tourism to Hong Kong. Journal of Destination Marketing Management. Yiu, M.S., Yu, J. and Jin, L., 2013. Detecting bubbles in Hong Kong residential property market. Journal of Asian Economics, 28, pp.115-124. Zhang, H.Q. and Kulendran, N., 2017. The Impact of Climate Variables on Seasonal Variation in Hong Kong Inbound Tourism Demand. Journal of Travel Research, 56(1), pp.94-107.