HIST4702 (2022-23) Digital History Project: SARS in Asia
Data: Comparing the Impacts of SARS on Tourism, Economy, Transport and Population in Hong Kong, Singapore and Guangdong
Introduction
The SARS outbreak in 2003 was an epidemic crisis faced by many countries and regions around the world. In order to have a more objective analysis of the SARS incident in Hong Kong, we will introduce data from Mainland China, Guangdong Province of China and Singapore for a cross-sectional comparison.
Comparative Analysis
Comparative Analysis of Economy
In 2003, the GDP of Mainland China (particularly the Guangdong Province) and Singapore were around 13742 billion (1598 billion) and 170 billion respectively. It is noteworthy that the GDP of these three places was not hit by SARS and showed the same declining trend as that of Hong Kong in that year . Although the Chinese economy was most affected by SARS in the 2nd quarter of 2003, the presence of the epidemic did not change the upward trend of the economy at that time, and China’s GDP grew by 8.3%, 9.1%, 10%, 10.1% and 11.4% from 2001 to 2005, accelerating year by year. Compared to the above three regions, Hong Kong, due to its relatively small economic size, was hit harder and showed the only downward trend.
Comparative Analysis of Tourism
The impact of SARS on tourism in 2003 was also significant in three places – Mainland China, Guangdong Province and Singapore. In terms of annual visitor numbers compared to 2002, they fell by 15%, 17% and 19% respectively annually. Comparing this to Hong Kong, which showed only a single-digit decline under the impact of SARS, we have a good sense of the resilience of Hong Kong’s tourism industry to recover and attention the Hong Kong government placed on tourism.
Comparative Analysis of Transport
In 2003, the transport sector in mainland China was affected to varying degrees by SARS. Passenger traffic on both waterways and railways declined by approximately 8.3% and 8.0% respectively. In contrast, road passenger traffic saw an increase of almost 10.1%, while air passenger traffic saw a slight increase of around 2% in a relatively flat situation. In Guangdong Province, the epicentre of the SARS, the four channels of transport traffic were not significantly affected by the epidemic outbreak. In the same year, Singapore’s total airfreight exports slowed to only about 0.6% year-on-year, down from a significant 10% increase last year, while total airfreight imports declined more significantly, by about 3.7% year-on-year.
Comparative Analysis of Population
In the 2003 SARS epidemic, there were a cumulative 5327 cases and 349 deaths in Mainland China, 1755 cases and 300 deaths in Hong Kong, and 238 cases and 33 deaths in Singapore. As the death rate of SARS was not very high, its impact on the population of the affected regions was limited. The population death rate in that year only increased somewhat in Guangdong Province. A similar trend showed in Hong Kong, though reaching only 5.3%. The remaining SARS-affected regions, especially Mainland China which holds a large population base, were more influenced by policy factors such as family planning, making it difficult to directly attribute changes in their population indicators to SARS.
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