Destination Hong Kong: Promoting Tourism in Britain's Chinese Colony, 1949-1997

Professor Carroll, John Mark   (Principal Investigator (PI))

48

2019-01-01

587430

Destination Hong Kong: Promoting Tourism in Britain's Chinese Colony, 1949-1997

China, Colonialism, History, Hong Kong, Tourism

HistoryHuman Geography

Humanities & Social Sciences (H)

17602618

General Research Fund (GRF)

2018

Completed

1 Examine how, from the establishment of the PRC in October 1949 up to the reversion to Chinese sovereignty in July 1997, a range of state and non-state actors – including the colonial government, the Hong Kong Tourist Association, airlines, hotels, and travel agents ¬– tried to promote colonial Hong Kong as a unique place: Chinese but not China, a harmonious blending of East and West, and, as a tourist guidebook from the early 1970s put it, a ""modern, bustling metropolis"" coexisting side-by-side with a ""peaceful, sleepy rural wonderland"" (Hong Kong Tourist Association 1972: n.p.). 2 Document how, with the uncertainty of the Cold War, the refugees crises of the 1950s, and the turbulence of the 1960s, these authorities were able to convince the Hong Kong public that tourism needed to be promoted more aggressively. 3 Show how the Hong Kong tourist industry responded to the changes of the long 1970s, including the global oil crisis and Deng Xiaoping's reforms and the reopening of the PRC, which both attracted more tourists to Hong Kong but also enabled others to sidestep Hong Kong and travel directly to the mainland. 4 Illustrate how the thirteen-year-long countdown, from the signing of the Sino-British Declaration in December 1984 to the return to China in July 1997, provided both challenges and opportunities for the Hong Kong tourist industry to retailor itself to meet the changing geopolitical scene. 5 Explore how tourism affected and shaped local identity over this period, including how through tourism Hong Kong people came to think about their city and themselves. 6 Analyze how visual images, including posters and films, were used to sell Hong Kong across the globe, and how these images changed over time to meet evolving political and other needs. These images will be posted and discussed on the companion website. 7 Consider how tourism may help us better understand Hong Kong during this period in ways that other approaches to history may not, and how the history of tourism can help Hong Kong's current government and tourist authorities understand how better to brand the region as a major tourist destination.