Hong Kong’s 4 new giant pandas called game-changer for tourism industry
- City can adopt animal as mascot, develop range of IP products and use its image on Cathay planes, tourism leaders and lawmakers say
Excitement is mounting over Hong Kong’s sudden surfeit of pandas, with tourism experts and lawmakers calling for the city to incorporate the six animals into its branding, develop copyrighted products around them and even adorn the planes of flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways with their furry likeness.
The city on Thursday was surprised to learn that Ying Ying had given birth to twins with mate Le Le after more than a decade of trying. They will soon be joined by another pair of young adults gifted by Beijing to mark the 27th anniversary of the city’s return to Chinese rule, leaving Hong Kong with a small family of the rare bears.
The chairman of Ocean Park, which houses the pandas, said the two cubs had provided a fresh incentive for staff to seek out new sources of revenue and the facility would focus on ways to capitalise on the appeal of having six pandas in one place.
“As for the panda economy, of course we will consider every business opportunity to increase visitor numbers,” Paulo Pong Kin-yee said on Friday.
Pong was part of a government-led delegation to Chengdu in Sichuan province to negotiate arrangements to bring over the two giant pandas gifted by Beijing. They are expected to arrive by the end of September, and Pong said he was confident the park had enough manpower and resources to care for all of the pandas.
Ocean Park uploaded a clip on Saturday of a cub being fed milk on a new social media account dedicated to providing daily updates on the newborns and the other pandas.
