HongKong airport protest shutdown tarnishes city's business image
HONG KONG - Mass flight cancellations at Hong Kong's airport disrupted one of the world's busiest air-transport hubs on Monday , causing chaos for tourists and business travellers and playing havoc with global airlines' flight schedules - a fresh escalation of the city's protest movement that threatens the Asian city's business-friendly image.
The protests, which have seen both sides adopt increasingly extreme tactics, had until Monday been mostly confined to neighbourhoods across the former British colony. But the airport protest, which caused the cancellation of more than 150 flights, was a rare case of the movement having a direct impact on business travel and tourism - mainstays of the Asian business centre's economy.
"Those investors that haven't already done so are beginning to question the utility of being based in the territory. Others have already begun the search for more politically stable hubs in the Asia-Pacific," he said. The moves came after the Chinese government warned Cathay Pacific, one of Hong Kong's best-known international brands, to bar its staff from participating in the protests - an escalation into the territory's business affairs.
The city's foreign investment promotion agency, InvestHK, boasts that Asia's key markets are"less than four hours away," a big selling point for the 8,000 international companies that have set up sales, operations and research and development centres in Hong Kong. More than 100 airlines allow"easy and efficient travel" to 190 locations, the agency says.
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