Hong Kong must be more aggressive in luring stars to perform in the city, boost its appeal overseas and make noise on the global stage as it looks to show tourists it is an exciting place to visit, analysts and industry players have said. Experts made the call for authorities to do more to strengthen the city’s attractiveness despite the government announcing on Tuesday a line-up of 15 new shows as part of more than 100 mega events being held in the second half of the year. The new shows will include the Chinese Kungfu x Dance Carnival, I.
M. Pei: Life is Architecture exhibition, Hong Kong Performing Arts Expo, Hong Kong Fashion Design Week, World Lacrosse Women’s U20 Championship, WBSC Baseball5 World Cup, tech event SmartCon, Super Terminal Expo and Exhibition for the 75th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China. The updated list of mega events taking place between July and December features 42 large-scale conferences, 25 artistic and creative activities, 15 sports competitions, 13 functions related to finance, the economy and the innovation and technology sector, and 11 festive events.
Including those that had already taken place, more than 210 mega events would be held by the end of the year. The activities were expected to attract 1.7 million tourists, stimulate spending of HK$7.
2 billion (US$92.3 million) and add HK$4.3 billion to the economy.
But business magnate Allan Zeman, chairman of the Lan Kwai Fong Group, called the new shows “little.
