Measures to promote hospitality and destination image

• Hong Kong fully resumed normal cross-boundary travel in early 2023, ending the three-year anti‑epidemic travel restrictions. The city has since recorded a significant rebound in visitor arrivals, with the numbers surging by 154% year-on-year to 11.23 ‍million in the first quarter of 2024. While the Government has made strides in making Hong‍ Kong more attractive to tourists, through for example securing a pipeline of mega events, there remain challenges when it comes to elevating visitors' travel experience. Among others, there have been reportedly concerns or comments over guest courtesy, city cleanliness, friendliness of support services and/or hospitality image, all of which may have a bearing on visitors' perceptions over Hong Kong's image and their desire to return.^{1Legend symbol denoting See 大公網(2023), 文匯網(2023), 東網(2023), and GovHK (2024).}
• Recently, the Hong Kong Tourism Board ("HKTB") has launched a new campaign to promote good hospitality,^{2Legend symbol denoting See Culture, Sports, and Tourism Bureau and Tourism Commission (2024) and 香‍港‍01(2024). An example of past courtesy campaigns was one that was launched in 1998 with the "Be a Good Host" theme, in which well-known Hong Kong stars participated in a series of television advertisements. See GovHK (1999).} including a reality show on mystery shopping to assess customer service quality, and recruiting volunteers to provide tourism services at locations like HKTB visitor centres. To ensure smooth running of mega events, the Government has also set up an inter-departmental group to coordinate the organization. Added to these are the ongoing efforts in cleaning public facilities such as public toilets at popular gathering spots for visitors, in addition to tackling hygiene black spots.^{3Legend symbol denoting See GovHK (2018, 2021).}
• This issue of Essentials aims to study the experiences of the popular Asian destinations in enhancing quality of hospitality in their tourism markets. Seoul, South Korea, Tokyo metropolis ("Tokyo"), Japan, and Singapore are studied, all of which are above Hong Kong in a global ranking of top city destinations in ‍2023.^{4Legend symbol denoting Tokyo ranked the 4th, Singapore 11th, Seoul 14th, and Hong Kong 17th. See Euromonitor International (2023).} In addition to expanding tourism attractions, these cities have implemented different new facilitative services and/or tourist-friendly initiatives that provide visitors with a fresh post-pandemic travel experience. As an example, Seoul successfully expanded its high-speed public WiFi network within a few years to virtually cover the entire city and promoted its culture and heritage through offering walking tours; Tokyo is applauded for its novel luggage-free travel services and relentless improvement in basic amenities under the support of the government; whereas Singapore managed to nurture the city's courtesy and track its perception trend, which help support continuous improvement and contribute to tourism growth. The ensuing sections discuss the initiatives in detail.

• Like Hong Kong and other international cities, Seoul has made concerted efforts to revive the tourism industry after ending the cross-boundary travel restrictions. In September‍ 2023, the Seoul Metropolitan Government ("Seoul city government") unveiled the "Seoul Tourism Future Vision" (so-called "3‧3‧7‧7 Tourism Era"), setting out rather ambitious future goals to achieve, namely, 30‍ million tourists a year, 3 ‍million won (HK$17,700) per capita consumption, seven-day stay and 70% revisit rate.^{5Legend symbol denoting See Seoul Metropolitan Government (2023b) and Etoday (2023). According to Seoul Metropolitan Government (2023c), there were 13.9 million international visitors in 2019 and 2.44 million in 2022.} The "South Korea's Tourism Export Innovation Strategy" released in December 2023 further emphasized high-value tourism development in such areas as medication and wellness. As the capital city of South Korea, Seoul remains committed to making the place more "tourist friendly", apart from nurturing K-culture and Seoul-style tourism content. For example:
  • (a)
    Free high-speed public WiFi city: Seoul has remarkably expanded its free public WiFi service to cover virtually all public places from main streets to buses and parks. Claimed to be the first in the world to install high-speed public WiFi,^{6Legend symbol denoting See Seoul Metropolitan Government (2020).} the city has undergone massive replacements and new installations of WiFi hotspots, featuring the application of the latest security certification, uniform network identifier, and Internet connection that is four times faster than before. This has effectively helped relieve citizens' burden on mobile data bills whilst providing a greater travel convenience to tourists. According to the Seoul city government, public WiFi coverage was set to increase from 31% of the living zones in 2019 to 50% in 2020, 80% in 2021, and 100% in 2022, involving an investment of 102.7 billion won (HK$606‍ million). In return, annual benefits of 3.88‍ trillion won (HK$23 billion) are expectedly generated for the whole city.^{7Legend symbol denoting With the uniform identifier "SEOUL_Secure/Public WiFi Secure", citizens and tourists can stay connected from bus to park, and street to market, after entering just one time the username and password "seoul". See Seoul Metropolitan Government (2019b, 2023a).}
  • (b)
    Free walking tours in popular attractions: to enable tourists to understand the Korean culture more deeply, the Seoul city government, in collaboration with the Seoul Tourism Organization, runs free guided tour services at Seoul's popular tourist attractions. Since launch in 2003, the tour variety has kept expanding and currently there are about 40 ‍different tours, with themes from architecture to traditional village and urban regeneration. Generally, walking tours last for about 1.5 hours to 3 hours, and have a size of up to 10 participants. The tour services are available in seven languages, and are guided by trained volunteers with knowledge in Seoul's history and culture. According to the Seoul city government, the services had been used by over 1.4 million visitors between their launch and 2021.^{8Legend symbol denoting See Seoul Metropolitan Government (2019a, 2022). This Note made reference to information from an unofficial translation.} The Seoul Tourism Organization has a dedicated website section for online reservation by visitors.^{9Legend symbol denoting See Visit Seoul Net (2022, 2023).}

• Likewise, Japan seeks to boost tourism by focusing on attracting high-value international visitors. Earlier in May 2022, the Japan Tourism Agency under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism ("MLITT") formulated the "Action Plan for Creating High Value-Added Inbound Tourist Destinations in Local Areas".^{10Legend symbol denoting According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, high value-added travellers are defined as "travellers who spend more than one million yen per person on a single trip to Japan" (equivalent to HK$52,300 per person, based on exchange rate as at March 2024). This Note made reference to information from an unofficial translation. See 日‍本政府観光局(2023a).} Following this release, the cabinet office of the Japanese government approved a new tourism promotion plan in March‍ 2023, which has set various targets, including boosting per capita tourist consumption to ¥200,000 (HK$10,500) by 2025, representing an increase of 25% from the 2019 level.^{11Legend symbol denoting See Japan Tourism Agency (2024).} While efforts are being made to develop new tourism products, the promotion of measures including hands-free travel (手‍ぶ‍ら観光) is considered supportive to its high-value tourism strategy.
  • (a)
    Hands-free travel: Japan has built a network of "hands-free travel" service. The initiative was part of the hospitality innovation to prepare for the 2020 ‍Tokyo Olympics, with an aim to relieve tourists' burden to carry heavy luggage when travelling between destinations in the same or different cities. Delivery service is provided at tourism counters with an MLITT‑awarded "hands-free sightseeing" mark. To promote a broader network, counter operators awarded the hands-free sightseeing mark are eligible for government subsidy for purchase of necessary counter equipment.^{12Legend symbol denoting Granting of "hands-free sightseeing" logo is subject to fulfillment of a list of requirements, including same-day or next-day delivery, and clear information on pricing. This Note made reference to information from an unofficial translation. See 国土交通省(2008).} As at April 2024, there were 375 such counters set up in airports, subway/train stations, stores and hotels across cities in Japan, with over 70 such counters in Tokyo.^{13Legend symbol denoting See 国土交通省(2024).} Besides service counters, tourists may request delivery service via service operators' websites. For a same-day delivery of a piece of standard luggage (up to 30 kilograms) between airport and hotel, for example, service operators generally charge between ¥2,000 and ¥3,000 (HK$105-HK$157).^{14Legend symbol denoting See Japan Tourism Agency (2018).}
  • (b)
    Public toilet as a symbol of hospitality: To create a comfortable, safe and secure travel environment for international tourists, the Japan Tourism Agency periodically runs a funding scheme (訪日外國人旅行者受入環‍境整備緊急對策事業), providing subsidies to tourism facility operators or businesses in tourism destinations to introduce new or upgrade existing services. As an example, subsidies of up to one-third/half of eligible costs were previously made available for improving toilet facilities in tourism destinations and major bus and ferry terminals, in view that toilet is a symbol of Japan's hospitality culture.^{15Legend symbol denoting See 日本政府観光局(2023b), TOTO (未註明日期), and The Tokyo Toilet Website (undated).}

    Tokyo even goes further to make public toilet a tourism asset. In 2018, the Shibuya city government commenced a project to revamp the public toilets in 17 locations throughout Shibuya, in collaboration with a non‑profit organization. The revamped toilets feature innovative, unique and imaginative designs, with contributions from different renowned designers from around the world. The project reportedly cost a total of ¥2.1 billion (HK$110 million), funded by the non-profit organization jointly with a private conglomerate group.^{16Legend symbol denoting See 朝日新聞(2023). This Note made reference to information from an unofficial translation.} Currently, toilet management and maintenance are put under the Shibuya city government. To keep the facilities appealing and ensure that they can be used comfortably by residents and visitors, a consulting agency has even been hired to carry out professional inspection monthly and provide advice on the approach to cleaning, with a view to setting the standard for all public toilets in the future.^{17Legend symbol denoting The toilets also undergo annual maintenance to exterior surfaces, lighting, and ventilation, in addition to daily regular cleaning. See The Tokyo Toilet Website (undated).} Reportedly, the Shibuya city government has hosted a Tokyo Toilet bus tour through the Shibuya City Tourism Association, and is planning to organize more.^{18Legend symbol denoting See Nippon Communications Foundation (2023) and 人民網(2024).}

• Singapore's international visitor arrivals recovered to 13.6 million in 2023. Yet it was still 29% below the 2019 level. Earlier in September 2023, the Singapore Tourism Board launched the "Made in Singapore" campaign to showcase international travellers the city's cosmopolitan attributes and multicultural heritage. More recently, the Singaporean government has committed an injection of over S$300 million (HK$1.75 billion) into the tourism development fund, to support local enterprises to develop new intellectual properties, invigorate tourism offerings and upskill tourism workers, among others.^{19Legend symbol denoting See Ministry of Trade and Industry (2024).}
• Furthermore, Singapore is experienced in promoting hospitality and guest courtesy. Back in 1978, the Singapore Tourism Board (formerly known as Singapore Tourist Promotion Board) launched the first courtesy campaign with an aim to encourage Singaporeans to be more polite and friendlier towards tourists.^{20Legend symbol denoting See National Archives Singapore (undated).} A year later, the government turned it into a national public awareness campaign, with an inspiration to turn Singapore into a pleasant city filled by kindness, consideration and thoughtfulness. To promote courteous and gracious behaviour, it specifically created a mascot called Singa the Kindness Lion. Nowadays, the courtesy campaign is run by the Singapore Kindness Movement ("SKM"), a non-profit charity supported by government grants and public donations.^{21Legend symbol denoting SKM was launched in 1997 in response to the call of the then-Prime Minister (Goh ‍Chok ‍Tong) for building a gracious society by the 21st century. At the time, he supported SKM as a patron. The current patron of SKM is the incumbent Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. In 2022-2023, SKM received government grants totalling S$6.23 million (HK$36 million). See Government of Singapore (1998, 2022).} The campaign is lauded for its consistent and systematic approach in building city and cultural identity with niceness and courtesy.^{22Legend symbol denoting See CNA (2022).} Key features are as follows:
  • (a)
    All-front promotions: SKM has an array of programmes promoting kindness. For example, it launched the narrative "A kinder you, a stronger us", with the demonstration of some simple ways to spread kindness in daily life. Besides programmes for the general public, there are participatory projects (e.g. cyber kindness, neighbourliness, and/or inclusivity) for school students, and free talks for parents on nurturing kindness. As part of the National Education initiative, kindness projects that are initiated by youths aged 13-26 are eligible for funding under the Ministry of Education.^{23Legend symbol denoting See NE Community Resource Guide (2024).}

    Meanwhile, Singa the Kindness Lion has appeared widely in the media and grown into one of the most loved mascots for Singaporeans. Singa has been active on the SKM online platform, spreading messages like "I quit, I ‍need a long break…", and "I am just too tired to continue facing an increasingly angry and disagreeable society", in an attempt to prompt the public to discuss the subject of "kindness", whether positively or negatively. This unconventional way of promotion is considered helpful to reflect the state of kindness in the city, which in turn enables the government to better understand what kind of society Singaporeans wanted to be.^{24Legend symbol denoting See Campaign Asia-Pacific (2013), SKM (2024), and CNA (2022).}
  • (b)
    Tracking survey: Commissioned by SKM and conducted annually since 2009, the Graciousness Survey has sought to gauge the public perceptions about overall graciousness in Singapore, with the release of a score annually. Besides overall graciousness, the survey also captures insights into prevailing community topics, such as perceptions on specific gracious behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the state of integration between citizens and non-citizens. Since 2019, the survey has incorporated the perceived graciousness in the online environment as well.^{25Legend symbol denoting See SKM (2020, 2023). According to The Straits Times (2017), the annual survey used to have a graciousness index, but it has no longer been released/compiled since 2015.}

• Besides SKM's annual survey on graciousness, there is notably also the Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore, an annual assessment of Singapore's customer service. It is administered by the Institute of Service Excellence, a centre set up jointly by the Singapore Workforce Development Agency and Singapore Management University in 2007. Compiled annually, the index is essentially a customer satisfaction score, generated at the national, sectoral, sub-sectoral and company levels, based on customers' perceived value, quality and expectations, as well as customer loyalty and complaints.^{26Legend symbol denoting The methodology made reference to the American Customer Satisfaction Index developed by the National Quality Research Center at the University of Michigan. See Singapore Management University (2024a).} A number of economic sectors and sub-sectors are tracked. For example, the most pandemic-impacted industries – tourism, retail, food and beverage – faced a score drop of 2.2%-7.0% between 2019 and 2022, while land transport service, finance and insurance saw improvements. At the national level, the score stood at 74.6 out of 100 in 2022, compared to 68.7 in the inception year 2007.^{27Legend symbol denoting See Singapore Management University (2008, 2023, 2024b).}

• Hong Kong's neighbouring cities are sparing no efforts in rebuilding tourist inflow. In addition to devising a new strategy to bolster visitors' spending, they have enhanced the quality of hospitality through innovative measures with a view to forging memorable experience for tourists. For example, Seoul leads the world by providing free high-speed public WiFi city-wide, which provides a great deal of convenience for visitors, and take fuller advantage of its culture and heritage with the free tour services. Japan's promotion of hands-free travel between destinations within and across cities helps encourage a longer stay of travellers in Japan, while continuous improvements/innovations of public toilets in Tokyo not only reflect its hospitable culture but also present themselves as tourism attractions. Singapore, through conducting regular surveys, has kept track of the courtesy and customer satisfaction trend, thereby enabling the identification of service gap in different tourism-related sectors over time. All these may provide perspectives for Hong Kong in considering measures to uplift the city's destination image and hospitality.

1. See 大公網(2023), 文匯網(2023), 東網(2023), and GovHK (2024).
2. See Culture, Sports, and Tourism Bureau and Tourism Commission (2024) and 香‍港‍01(2024). An example of past courtesy campaigns was one that was launched in 1998 with the "Be a Good Host" theme, in which well-known Hong Kong stars participated in a series of television advertisements. See GovHK (1999).
3. See GovHK (2018, 2021).
4. Tokyo ranked the 4th, Singapore 11th, Seoul 14th, and Hong Kong 17th. See Euromonitor International (2023).
5. See Seoul Metropolitan Government (2023b) and Etoday (2023). According to Seoul Metropolitan Government (2023c), there were 13.9 million international visitors in 2019 and 2.44 million in 2022.
6. See Seoul Metropolitan Government (2020).
7. With the uniform identifier "SEOUL_Secure/Public WiFi Secure", citizens and tourists can stay connected from bus to park, and street to market, after entering just one time the username and password "seoul". See Seoul Metropolitan Government (2019b, 2023a).
8. See Seoul Metropolitan Government (2019a, 2022). This Note made reference to information from an unofficial translation.
9. See Visit Seoul Net (2022, 2023).
10. According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, high value-added travellers are defined as "travellers who spend more than one million yen per person on a single trip to Japan" (equivalent to HK$52,300 per person, based on exchange rate as at March 2024). This Note made reference to information from an unofficial translation. See 日‍本政府観光局(2023a).
11. See Japan Tourism Agency (2024).
12. Granting of "hands-free sightseeing" logo is subject to fulfillment of a list of requirements, including same-day or next-day delivery, and clear information on pricing. This Note made reference to information from an unofficial translation. See 国土交通省(2008).
13. See 国土交通省(2024).
14. See Japan Tourism Agency (2018).
15. See 日本政府観光局(2023b), TOTO (未註明日期), and The Tokyo Toilet Website (undated).
16. See 朝日新聞(2023). This Note made reference to information from an unofficial translation.
17. The toilets also undergo annual maintenance to exterior surfaces, lighting, and ventilation, in addition to daily regular cleaning. See The Tokyo Toilet Website (undated).
18. See Nippon Communications Foundation (2023) and 人民網(2024).
19. See Ministry of Trade and Industry (2024).
20. See National Archives Singapore (undated).
21. SKM was launched in 1997 in response to the call of the then-Prime Minister (Goh ‍Chok ‍Tong) for building a gracious society by the 21st century. At the time, he supported SKM as a patron. The current patron of SKM is the incumbent Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. In 2022-2023, SKM received government grants totalling S$6.23 million (HK$36 million). See Government of Singapore (1998, 2022).
22. See CNA (2022).
23. See NE Community Resource Guide (2024).
24. See Campaign Asia-Pacific (2013), SKM (2024), and CNA (2022).
25. See SKM (2020, 2023). According to The Straits Times (2017), the annual survey used to have a graciousness index, but it has no longer been released/compiled since 2015.
26. The methodology made reference to the American Customer Satisfaction Index developed by the National Quality Research Center at the University of Michigan. See Singapore Management University (2024a).
27. See Singapore Management University (2008, 2023, 2024b).