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Outside In | Hong Kong needs to bring back international sporting events quickly, and find its mojo again
- Sports is big business so it is vital for Hong Kong’s economy to show the world we still have the flair to make sporting events, and others, special
- Reopening venues and sporting activities will also help our athletes regain their potential and restore public health
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As tickets for the long-awaited Hong Kong Sevens went on sale this week, our hermit city creaked open its doors to the world for the first time in three years. Do we still have the flair to organise what, for the past four decades, has been one of the world’s best sporting parties? And how many from overseas will bother to come?
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As Hong Kong’s travel-hungry families celebrate the government’s nervous steps towards opening up, there are still many events – in particular sporting ones – that remain on hold.
We may be celebrating the rugby sevens, cross-harbour swim and Triathlon Championships, but we chafe at the postponement of the Hong Kong marathon, Oxfam Trailwalker, Hong Kong’s Open Fencing Championships and even the relatively sedate Lawn Bowls Championship.
Who knows how long it will take to resume inviting the world to our renowned Lunar New Year fireworks displays spanning the harbour, our world-leading trade fairs and exhibitions, or even more modest celebrations like Clockenflap. The sooner we reopen for business, the better.
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In our determination to exterminate the many variants of Covid-19, we appear to have lost the knack of organising world-leading events. More seriously, we appear to have forgotten what a powerful contribution such events have made to our economy and people’s livelihoods.
As we shunned international events and the millions of high-spending visitors they bring, and shuttered our economy to international business, cities across the world have only been too happy to fill the breach.
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