HONG KONG TOURISM

Fumier makes an excellent point re the HKTA marketing people and their pointless slogans and campaigns. They only ever seem to market themselves as a "shoppers paradise" while missing out on so much you can do outside of the city.

But now they've gone and made even the shopping unattractive!

The Customs and Excise Dept claim to have the sale of pirated goods "practically under control" and are planning to clamp down further.

No doubt this will appear to be great news to all the overpaid civil servants and local bigwigs who run things such as the HKTA. They are all obsessed with brand names and wouldn't be seen dead with a fake anything, as the queues of cantonese speakers in the boutiques come sale time demonstrate.

But what they don't understand is most foreigners who come here to go shopping do so specifically for the fakes. That's the fun part. Why would they come here just to buy the same Louis Vuitton / Prada / Rolex / Burberry / Tag / any-other-brand-name product that you can buy in every major western city? The whole point of shopping here is to go to the markets, buy fakes, and feel you're being a bit rebellious and taking a walk on the wild side in the dangerous and mysterious east instead of just popping to the local shopping mall at home.

Last year my sister and mother turned up with 3 empty suitcases between them and went home with them all full. Of fakes. Take away the fakes and their main reason for coming would be gone. (I'm under no illusion they were here to see me.).

The HKTA and the Customs and Excise Dept just don't understand gweilos!