The Orient is Hong Kong? Cultural Representations of Hong Kong in Tourism Materials and the Missing Voices of the Tourists

The Hong Kong Tourist Association (HKTA), established in 1957, aimed to promote the city as a world-class tourist destination, highlighting its traditional Chinese culture and fusion of East and West. Overseas promotional materials, such as brochures and posters, were distributed to promote Hong Kong as an iconic destination. This chapter examines promotional items from the 1930s to the 1970s to illustrate how the concept of “the Orient is Hong Kong” was used to boost tourism. It also investigates local travel agencies’ and tourists’ comments in newspaper columns to explore how the tourism authority reinforced an oriental theme in their promotional agenda yet overlooked the real expectations and impressions of tourists and locals. I argue that tourist perceptions of Hong Kong differed from the official discourse of HKTA, proving that urban discourses cannot be easily constructed by authorities.