[New crown pneumonia] The government needs to learn lessons from the pharmacy epidemic

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Written by: Commentary Editing Room

2020-08-15 07:00

The third wave of the new crown pneumonia epidemic is raging, and the number of free travellers has greatly decreased. Local pharmacies that have benefited from the demand of tourists for a long time in the past bear the brunt. "Australian shops" have appeared one after another in Mong Kok. There are about 12 and 4 shops on Sai Yeung Choi Street and Sportswear Street respectively, some of which were formerly fashion stores, pharmacies and chain drug stores. In the past, Sheung Shui, which was plagued by the problem of parallel importers, has become less crowded, and Jipu has emerged. After the pandemic, pharmacies will be reborn from the ashes, or whether the preferential tourism policy in the past can be corrected, it depends on how the government responds.

A number of stores have already posted "reduction of prices after the lease expires," and some pharmacies have placed special shelves for 10, 15 and 20 yuan outside the door. (Photo by Ouyang Dehao)

"Freedom" complaints must be faced squarely

The closure of local pharmacies is the result of a decrease in the flow of people and the disappearance of tourists. However, the past excessive emphasis on same-day tourists and even parallel buyers in the retail industry is worth reviewing by the government. The pharmacy business benefited from mainland tourists coming to Hong Kong, but at the same time it created the problem of parallel importers disrupting the community. Pharmacies sold milk powder and sanitary napkins to the full. Among them, Sheung Shui District, the most troubled by parallel importers, has been around since 2012 It has provoked several "recovery" movements, affecting the relationship between the two places.

Pharmacies rely on mainland tourists for profit. Luggage boxes are scattered on the ground to receive goods. The collision of scraps and scraps affects the lives of local residents, and the streets have lost their original features. This is of course not a problem of tourists, but the government's lack of planning and failure to strike a balance between the needs of tourists and the lives of residents. Although Xintian Shopping City appeared later, it failed to function as a diversion due to lack of location and surrounding supporting facilities. Now that pharmacies are undergoing a wave of closures, the government should take this opportunity to bring about qualitative changes to the tourism industry in Hong Kong. It must plan for tourism supporting facilities and attract different types of tourists.

In the past, a large number of mainland tourists came to Hong Kong, but most of them went back and forth within the same day. The activities were mainly shopping, and the mode naturally easily affected the lives of residents. The HKTB can assist the industry to discover new tourism experiences from local natural resources, historical buildings, cultural customs, etc., in addition to shopping. From the number of visitors to Hong Kong in 2018, we can see that at that time, there were more than 50 million visitors from the Mainland, but less than 40% of overnight visitors. The value of Hong Kong's tourism should not be limited to parallel imports and milk powder. Even if the epidemic subsides, whether Hong Kong's tourism industry can transform is yet to be proposed by the government and the Tourism Board to provide support to the industry.

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How are the results of tourism distributed?

In addition to the transformation of the tourism industry, in order for residents to have a real sense of the booming tourism economy, the government must also think about how to allocate economic results to the citizens. The direct conflict between citizens and visitors to Hong Kong can be described as partly due to the fact that residents have been affected in their daily lives, but they are unable to share the fruits they deserve economically. The benefits from travelers often only benefit tourism-related industries such as pharmacies. At the same time as the tourism industry is transforming, the government must also start with the distribution of wealth, so that Hong Kong people can pay for the tourism industry at the same time they can get their due returns and alleviate public grievances.

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New crown pneumonia pharmacy free travel 01 viewpoint