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.

Only nine ships called at Kai Tak from June to December 2013. The number is expected to increase to 28 this year. By way of contrast, about 110 cruise ships are scheduled this year at Ocean Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui, which opened in the 1960s.

People complain about the lack of transportation facilities at the new Kai Tak terminal. When the Queen Mary 2 tied up there in April, passengers were kept waiting two hours just to get a taxi. The chaos put heavy pressure on terminal operators to fix the problem and establish functional transportation links.

The terminal was inspired in the first place by memories of breathtaking views afforded to passengers onboard jets gliding down through the mountains, past the dense clusters of apartment buildings, before alighting at the old Kai Tak Airport in Victoria Harbor.

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.

Not easy to reach

The new facility, for all its virtues, still spawns a transportation nightmare. The only way in and out is through the crowded streets of Kowloon Bay. The new roads from the terminal to San Po Kong and Kwun Tong will not be complete before 2017.

"Traffic is very heavy. Our friends spent about two hours on the road from downtown to here. One spent more than three hours," said Mr Ho, an exhibitor at the Wine and Dine Festival.

Fully cognizant of the traffic annoyances, festival organizers had the foresight to arrange free shuttle buses from nearby MTR stations to the Kai Tak terminal. But many people gave up waiting and just walked - covering the distance in the much shorter time frame of 30 minutes.

Taxi drivers don't like the new terminal either. Earlier this year, the Motor Transport Workers General Union's taxi driver branch advised members to avoid the terminal whenever a cruise ship arrived. The advisory was withdrawn after the terminal operator, Worldwide Cruise Terminals, promised a HK$20 subsidy to each taxi leaving the terminal with cruise passengers.

There are few days when Kai Tak awakens from its slumber. Only 10 days prior to the arrival of the Sapphire Princess, Kai Tak was all but deserted. There was no cruise ship in port and nearly no one in the shops, eateries or on the concourse.

There is no regular transportation, save for Kowloon green minibus route No 86. But when the minibuses arrive, their 16 seats, almost invariably, are empty. There were no taxis around.

With no customers, staff at the shops along the mall kept busy by cleaning showcases. Restaurants were empty. The only place that showed any life was the rooftop, where a few visitors came to enjoy the park and the ocean view. Kai Tak, having lost its stature as the gateway to Hong Kong, seems almost isolated from the city today.

May Tuen, a manager at Federal Cruise Banquet Centre, voiced her dissatisfaction with the lack of business. "We have a few customers on weekdays. Most are employees of the terminal and workers from the nearby construction sites. We have to offer free buses to attract more customers."

The government invested HK$8.2 billion to build the new terminal in Kai Tak, intent on transforming Hong Kong into the cruise hub of the Asia-Pacific region.

Too young to compete

During a Legislative Council panel meeting on October 27, tourism sector lawmaker Yiu Si-wing questioned the rather poor showing at Kai Tak Cruise Terminal. He pointed out stiff competition from terminals of Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenzhen and Hainan Island.

Lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun noted that Singapore's 2-year-old cruise terminal had 140 ship calls over a 12-month period.

Jeff Bent, managing director of the Worldwide Cruise Terminals, explained to China Daily that "cruising is very much a 'team game'. Ports in a region must work collaboratively to encourage more cruise ships to visit, and develop facilities to allow more diverse cruise itineraries."

He said it was unfair to compare cruise terminals in their formative stages. "It's like comparing a 2 and 3-year-old child; there are very substantial differences in the early years," he added.

Bent indicated that cruise lines plan their itineraries two years in advance. "Cruise lines only started planning to call at Kai Tak in earnest after the facility was able to receive ships in mid-2013, which means that their planned calls arrive from mid-2015 onwards. Ship calls that we are receiving in 2014 were made when the cruise lines were not sure if there would be a completed terminal to berth at or not."

The Royal Caribbean International has announced that its ship, Voyager of the Seas, would use Kai Tak as the homeport and run more than 20 voyages departing from Hong Kong in 2015. The government's Tourism Commission called this decision "a vote of confidence" in the terminal from international cruise companies. Still, the total ships calls at Kai Tak are expected to rise to only 55 next year, only half the number posted by Singapore's new facility in its third year of operation.

Contact the writer at felix@chinadailyhk.com

Getting to the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal from downtown through the crowded streets of Kowloon Bay could be a major hazard. Edmond Tang / China Daily

There is only one minibus route servicing the Kai Tak terminal. Edmond Tang / China Daily

Taxi drivers frequently shun Kai Tak Cruise Terminal despite a HK$20 subsidy offered to each vehicle carrying cruise passengers. Edmond Tang / China Daily

(HK Edition 11/06/2014 page7)