Chinese tourists are rapidly deserting Hong Kong, leaving retailers who built businesses around once insatiable demand from mainland neighbors with bigger but emptier stores and squeezing the whole city's visitor-dependent economy.
With cross-border tensions exacerbated by pro-democracy Hong Kong protests, tour groups visiting Hong Kong from China plunged about 80 percent in early March. A Beijing crackdown on conspicuous spending by mainlanders also shows no signs of letting up, sending tourists further afield.
While day-trippers from just outside Hong Kong continue to buy daily essentials there, Chinese travelers with cash to burn are homing in on places like South Korea and Japan.