San Francisco looks to revive tourism amid Apec summit
Community leaders are coming up with ways to revive San Francisco’s tourism industry amid the Apec summit, as the homeless crisis and street crime keep international visitors away. One of them is Steven Lee, who’s part of an event planning committee tasked with bringing tourists to Chinatown during this week's international gathering. “In Chinatown, we only get tourists in June, July, and August. And after September Labour Day, when everybody goes back to school, our economy goes down again. But ever since, even maybe a year before the pandemic, our businesses were going down already. And we were trying to start working on ways of bringing people back. And then all of a sudden, Covid hit,” he told RTHK. Lee, who owns three businesses in Chinatown, said media tours, after-parties and a night market are underway to show how vibrant the neighbourhood is. "So with the preparation, one group is going to do historical tours, historical activation. Other group is, like my business group, is we're going to be hosting media tour at night. So we can show our legacy restaurants and our new bars and clubs in Chinatown. We're not that, even though we're the oldest Chinatown in the US, we're not backwards.” Edward Siu, chairman of the Chinatown Merchants United Association, said he expects at least a 35 percent jump in businesses under the Apec summit and related events.  However, he warned that getting around could be tricky with the temporary suspension of cable cars and the central subway.  “The street is like kind of semi-closed. Why am I saying that's semi-closed? Because it's only allowed to walk into it. [The vehicles] are not allowed to go by. And some of the trucks cannot do the delivery or the pickup. So that's why a lot of merchants are really upset about that," he said. Siu, who also runs a travel agency, said the California city relies heavily on tourists for income, but there’s been a dearth of mainland tour groups even after the pandemic. “San Francisco really depends on the tourists. We don't have our own products. We only depend on the tourists. We have at least like Golden Gate Park, Golden Gate Bridge, Fishman Wharf, Chinatown, Japan Town. We have all those sightseeing.” he said. “Like for the people from China, right now, the main problem is they [need to] apply for the visa. It's not that easy [to come] to the United States,” he said. “Sure, Apec is bringing up a lot of the people back in here. But I don't know afterwards, what to do?” He said issues such as homelessness cannot be solved overnight, adding that it could take up to two years for tourism to fully recover.