Hong Kong has sought the help of Australian former rugby union star Nick “Honey Badger” Cummins to attract visitors back — albeit using footage filmed before the COVID-19 pandemic, when masks were not compulsory.
The territory’s tourism industry has been widely wiped out by pandemic border controls that have left it internationally isolated.
It recorded just 76,000 arrivals in the first half of the year, down from 65 million for all of 2018.
Photo: Bloomberg
However, Hong Kong is gearing up for what it is billing as a grand reopening early next month, to coincide with the Rugby Sevens tournament and a banking summit.
The Hong Kong Tourism Board’s latest campaign has raised eyebrows for the picture it paints of a territory absent of many strict pandemic curbs that — unlike in much of the world — are still in place.
In three videos released on Wednesday, Cummins, a reality TV personality renowned during his playing career for his on-field aggression and colorful post-match interviews, takes in various tourist sites.
“I can’t wait for Aussies to explore Hong Kong like I have,” Cummins enthused in the news release announcing the ads.
However, masks, which remain compulsory in Hong Kong for virtually all public settings, were nowhere to be seen in the ads, nor was there any sign of the ubiquitous app used to scan entry into venues.
One of the restaurants Cummins visits, a once-legendary establishment called Tung Po, was shut down by officials just last month over a tenancy dispute.
A Tourism Board spokesperson told Agence France-Presse that the videos were shot in January 2020 and came with a disclaimer that “scenes and visuals in all promotional materials were made for advertising and creative purposes only.”
Hong Kong last month scrapped more than two years of mandatory quarantine for overseas arrivals, long after regional tourist rivals such as Singapore and Bangkok.
However, visitors are still not allowed to enter bars or restaurants for the first three days and must undergo multiple COVID-19 tests.
Public gatherings of more than four people are still banned.
SPEAKING OUT: After Siranudh Scott’s allegations surfaced, celebrities and public figures took to social media to share their own experiences of sexual misconduct and abuse A high-profile alleged sexual abuse case within a wealthy Thai beer brewing family has prompted a wave of painful accounts from survivors of unconnected abuse in the conservative nation. Siranudh Scott, a member of the billionaire Thai family that founded the ubiquitous Singha beer brand, posted an emotional video this month accusing his elder brother Sunit of repeatedly abusing him when he was a teenager. Sunit, who is in his 30s, later denied the allegations in a video posted online, but Singha parent Boonrawd dismissed him from his executive role with the company on Tuesday last week. “I felt I needed to speak
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
COMMUNITY CONFLICT: Concerns about disease spread from corpses has run up against friends and families’ desire to bury their dead as infection spreads in the area Angry residents of a town at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) attacked and burned a tent that was part of a health center where people are being treated for the virus, the staff there said Saturday. It was the second such attack in the region in a week. No one was hurt in the attack, according to reports but as patients ran out to escape the fire, 18 people with suspected Ebola infections fled the facility and are unaccounted for, a hospital director said. Angry residents arrived at the clinic in the
Forecasters in Europe yesterday warned of exceptional heat as record temperatures driven by a “heat dome” push temperatures well above seasonal norms across the continent. The surge follows a record-breaking Monday, with France logging its hottest day in the month of May on record, its weather agency said, and the UK also posting unprecedented highs. A so-called “heat dome” of warm air from northern Africa trapped under a high-pressure system over western Europe is behind the high temperatures not usually seen until high summer. Restrictions on outdoor work were imposed in parts of Italy, beaches in southwest France filled earlier than usual and
RSS