There is another elephant in the room, how far HK has fallen in the ranking of places to visit as a final destination. There really isn't any great bargains to be had, everything is cheaper on Amazon, so those visitors aren't coming. Ok, so the transit passengers. "The one or two day stopovers" on your way to somewhere good, remember those? The fresh air, and wide open spaces?
So people come here for business. Right? Manufacturing? None left. Banking? Nope. Trade? Thats all gone north. This is a genuine question, what is left, what are we good at? Known for? Capable of?
We USED to be strategically placed, for shipping into and out of a closed communist state to the north. No longer the case. it is as easy to ship into and out of China directly, and cheaper. We used to be strategically placed because you couldn't fly directly into China, only Dragonair could. No longer the case. The landscape hasn't just changed because mainland carriers aren't crashing so regularly, this has been coming a long time. Hong kong is now just another polluted Chinese city not worth visiting. The gorilla in the room everyone is trying to ignore, we are now worth paying a few extra bucks to NOT have to transit through our inefficient airport, because you quite probably will face some sort of delay that will cost you a days travel on your way to where you really want to go, with the limited time you have.