"Band plays on at Hong Kong Disneyland but visitors stay away"

From the Financial Times, April 1:

Almost two months after Hong Kong’s Disneyland theme park closed its gates, weeds are growing in the car park. At one of the resort’s hotels, the only parts of the complex that are still open, a pianist plays jazz covers of Disney classics to an almost empty lobby. Around the corner, construction workers are labouring 24 hours a day to convert a plot of land into government quarantine facilities to house up to 100 coronavirus patients by next month. 

The spectacle of Disneyland without visitors reflects the wider economic woes facing Hong Kong, which began grappling with the economic fallout of coronavirus weeks before the disease claimed its first victims in the US and Europe. An international financial centre that also serves as one of Asia’s main tourist and transport hubs, the territory has been forced to ban all visitor arrivals from abroad in response to a second wave of cases. 

The travails of its travel and hospitality sector offer a case study for countries in the west that are only beginning to feel the impact of coronavirus on their tourism industries. In February, visitor numbers to Hong Kong plummeted 96 per cent compared with a year earlier, government data show — hitting an economy already weakened by the impact of the US-China trade war and anti-government protests in 2019. Hong Kong's economy contracted by 1.2 per cent in 2019, the first annual decline in a decade....MUCH MORE

One of the writers of this piece, Thomas Hale served briefly at Fort FT Alphaville but moved on. Thomas we hardly knew ye.

Disneyland Hong Kong has been closed for two months, and weeds are already growing through the cracks in the car park

Our report on the city's struggling economy - an early case study for what is now happening everywhere

w/ @nicolle_liu https://t.co/vTjpXJP4y2

— Thomas Hale (@TomHale_) April 2, 2020

 

The other writer Nicolle Liu shares a surname with some 50 - 60 million other Liu's, including the Chinese Vice-Premier, Liu He.

I know some Liu's, from a rather noteworthy Beijing branch of the fam who informed me of this when I would ask if they were related to this Liu or that Liu.

Possibly related to the headline story, yesterday's:
Hong Kong Q1 Snapshot: Getting Interesting