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The economic impact of the protests in Hong Kong has been tremendous. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been lost from the past few months of protest.
The number of tourists from China entering Hong Kong has dropped by 56.3%, or 730,000 tourists, causing retail stores, restaurants, and hotels to suffer from a shortage of customers.
Due to consistent interferences from protestors, malls such as the Time Square in Causeway Bay and the IFC in Central are forced to close down during the weekend.
The occupancy rate of visitors has dropped from almost 100 percent last year’s three days holiday to 50 percent this year. Hotels in HongKong are forced to lower the price or open staycation packages to visitors due to a lack of customers.
The price of hotels in Hong Kong has dropped 50-60 percent due to the protests. “Staycation” packages have also been opened to consumers, allowing Hong Kong residents to escape from the chaos outside.
The MTR metro corporation has also suffered immensely from the protests. As one of the most favored rioting sites for protestors, the MTR Corporation loses more than 500 million HKD in one weekend because of the damages done by the protestors.
Hong Kong residents rely heavily on MTR city rail systems since cars and parking spaces are extremely expensive and traffic gets heavy during protests. On October 5th, the entire Hongkong MTR city rail system was shut down for the first time in forty years, due to protests.
Chloe I., a Junior in AISG says, “a lot of the exits were blocked off when I tried to enter the station which means I have to leave early next time as the exits I usually use are now closed.”
Besides short-term economic impacts, the Hong Kong protests will also cause long-term economic impacts.
Hong Kong is an Asian financial business center for foreign corporations to enter China’s market.
In short, the economy of Hong Kong is suffering from tremendous losses. Both long-term and short-term economic impacts will continue to damage Hong Kong until the protests stop.
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