Lan Kwai Fong Group chairman Allan Zeman said on Friday that Hong Kong must step up its game and do things that are different and innovative to attract high-spending tourists.

He was commenting on Tourism Board figures showing that around 750,000 visitors arrived in Hong Kong over the four-day Lunar New Year holiday period, including 650,000 from the mainland.

Speaking on RTHK's Hong Kong Today, Zeman said that while it's good to see business slowly improving, many of the visitors were not the big spenders who came to Hong Kong previously, and retailers are "suffering" as consumers go elsewhere to shop.

“We need to do things that are really new and innovative. I think that Hong Kong always led in the past. I find that we're just falling behind. We're going back to the pre-Covid things that we did, but the rest of the world is moving on,” he said.

Zeman suggested using the city's natural resources, such as its beaches and country parks, to attract more people, as well as incorporating technology into New Year parades to make them more exciting.

“We need to have attractions that really will attract visitors other than [from] the mainland. At the moment, we're getting recognised… you know there're articles around the world saying that Hong Kong has lost its lustre and it's not the same. These are things that people read and they think, oh, okay, it's not worth going there,” he said.

“So, we really have to sit down and step up to the plate and up our game in everything.”

Zeman added that Hong Kong should continue to host major sporting events, despite the public outcry over football star Lionel Messi failing to play in his club's recent match in the SAR.