Saturday 18 January 2025, 14:30 - 16:30, Research Space, Arts Complex

Please register on Ticketpass. A small amount of Hong Kong-style refreshments will be provided.

In the wake of World War II, nations and colonies struggled to rebuild their economies – including by promoting tourism. Apart from generating much-needed revenue, government and business planners hoped this “invisible export” would help build a new era of peace and understanding. This talk discusses how Hong Kong became a major travel destination, with tourism eventually becoming one of its most important industries and its largest source of foreign-exchange revenue. At least until the mid-1950s, however, this owed less to local efforts and more to changes beyond Hong Kong’s initiative or control: the revival of passenger shipping and the global expansion of civil aviation, the reopening of Japan to tourism under the Allied occupation, and the Korean War.

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Prof. John Carroll is Principal Lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Hong Kong, where he directs the world’s first MA programme in Hong Kong history. He is the author of several books on Hong Kong history. This talk draws on his current research project on Hong Kong tourism.