Has the swanky new HK$8.2-billion Kai Tak Cruise Terminal turned out to be something of a white elephant? Felix Gao investigates.
A cruise ship tied up at Kai Tak Cruise Terminal last weekend and a carnival broke out. As the 2,700 passengers swept ashore from the Sapphire Princess, they stepped into an atmosphere of gaiety and good times. A wine exhibition and a youth skills competition were in full swing, while plenty of taxis and free shuttle buses stood ready to whisk passengers to the heart of Asia's shoppers' paradise.
It was a pretty good show considering the terminal opened last June and has remained all but deserted on most days ever since.
The new Kai Tak Cruise Terminal, at the end of where the runway used to lie, affords a pretty impressive entre of its own to the Hong Kong experience - with the shimmering, streamlined facade of the city set against the Kowloon East skyline. Departures, a luxury lifestyle magazine in the United States, described Kai Tak as "the Rolls-Royce of cruise terminals".
A crew member of Sapphire Princess, surnamed Zhang, called the terminal "high-end" and said it reminded him of airports in the US.
Local residents, drawn by the sight of the incoming cruise ship, scrambled up to the rooftop park at the terminal to snap photos of the gigantic liner, and the surrounding sea view.
Visitors to the Hong Kong Wine and Dine Festival, which was moved from Central harbor front to the open space next to the Kai Tak terminal this year, helped to draw traffic to the facilities, so that by early afternoon on November 1, restaurants and coffee shops in the terminal were packed.Â
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Has the swanky new HK$8.2-billion Kai Tak Cruise Terminal turned out to be something of a white elephant? Felix Gao investigates.
