Introduction
This report showcases the voice of the European community in Hong Kong. Its foundation are the responses to 2024 survey on Business Sentiment in Hong Kong. The survey’s results were analysed and visualized in collaboration with Phrasia. Phrasia provides advanced LLM based signal intelligence services. Quantitative, text-based answers to our survey were analysed to produce quantified values and visual data maps. Our collaborative report analyses the survey results and showcases current and forward-looking sentiments about the business landscape in Hong Kong.
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Following that, we used Phrasia’s narrative map visual to explore drivers underlying current and future views about Hong Kong. First, we identified three groups of general opinions about Hong Kong. Then, we found specific drivers and analysed them by behavioural category and by industry.
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Given the visual and interactive nature of the narrative maps and graphs
included in this report, we encourage our readers to toggle with the
interactive figures below. The narrative map, for example, can be
viewed at different levels of detail, revealing different emergent
clusters of sentiments.
Response Overview
Our survey link was publicised through The European Chamber of Commerce’s newsletter. It remained open for participation between June 22nd 2024 and October 16th 2024.
How many respondents and responses did we analyse?
A total of 100 respondents completed our twelve-question survey. The survey contained five multiple-choice questions and six open-text questions. For each open-text question, the responder chose to answer, they were asked to enter a minimum of five words. We received 548 responses from the optional open-text survey, coming from 100 respondents.
* Readers should note that some respondents did not answer all questions, hence percentages in the tables below may not total 100%.
The vast majority of responses came from people who have stayed in Hong Kong for over five years.
85%
Over 5 years
Under 5 years
13%
* Readers should note that some respondents did not answer all questions, hence percentages in the tables below may not total 100%.
Nearly a third of responses came from people in the Finance industry.
27%
Finance
12%
Technology
7%
Retail
4%
Hospitality
3%
Healthcare
3%
Education
* Readers should note that some respondents did not answer all questions, hence percentages in the tables below may not total 100%.
About seventy percent of responses came from people who identified as European
71%
Identified as European
16%
Identified as non -European
* Readers should note that some respondents did not answer all questions, hence percentages in the tables below may not total 100%.
Nearly forty percent of responses came from those employed at European Companies
Europe
39%
Other Regions
14%
Hong
Kong
11%
11%
Self
Employed
What makes Hong Kong Attractive ?
Responses showed a notable surplus of “like” responses
Respondents expressed a notable number of “likes” about Hong Kong and seemed eager to share their positive expressions. Of the six survey questions, only one specifically asked a “like” question (“What do you like about living in Hong Kong?”). However, when analysing responses across all questions, “like” responses accounted for one of five of the total response content.
By calculating the total excess share of “like responses, we find that “likes” contributed to an additional 17% beyond the combined average share of responses from the other five questions. In other words!
Top “like” responses highlighted that Hong Kong “Has it all”.
Four clusters emerged from responses to the “like” question. We will dive into each. Of the four categories, the top one were responses about liking that Hong Kong “Had it all”, it made of up nearly four in every ten responses:
39%
Vibe and Quality – Hong Kong “has it all”
36%
Ease and Efficiency
15%
Business Dynamism
10%
Safety and Reliability
Main Worries or Concerns
What do you worry about most regarding the city's outlook in the next 5-10 years?
In addition to the above positive factors, we asked respondents what they worry about: Specifically, we asked “What do you worry about most regarding the city's outlook in the next 5-10 years?” and let respondents choose how to answer.
In a changing world where geopolitics are growing more polarized, being a bridge can be challenging
Hover over to see the percentage ->
Uniqueness of Hong Kong’s positioning, autonomy, or competitiveness
18%
Uniqueness of Hong Kong’s positioning, autonomy, or competitiveness
Geopolitical dynamics
17%
Geopolitical dynamics
Hong Kong’s ability to assert relevance
12%
Hong Kong’s ability to assert relevance
In a changing world where geopolitics are growing more polarized, being a bridge can be challenging. The responses reflect concerns with how Hong Kong’s traditional role can work in a new and different landscape.
How are People and Companies Looking Ahead?
Putting likes and concerns aside, we asked open-ended questions to get a forward-looking view:
What are your thoughts about the outlook for the city for the next 5 years?
Question 1
To the best of your knowledge, what are the plans of your company/employer regarding its physical presence, resource investment, and headcount in Hong Kong?
Question 2
What are your thoughts about the outlook for the city for the next 5 years?
Question 3
How are you preparing for the next 5-10 years in the city?
Question 4
346 of the resulting open-text responses were categorized via Narrative Analytics, forming a “narrative map”.
Why are we using this methodology?
For the respondents, there are a high number of possible drivers of their decision – more than a survey designer would reasonably be expected to identify. Even if they could, a traditional survey method would involve a large number of closed questions to cover multiple bases - which would make it harder for us to get a reasonable response rate/completion rate from our members.
For the chamber, allowing open-ended responses, eliminate blind spots and survey bias, because people write what they want to write. Reviewing the open-text responses through narrative analytics allows organizations to hear the things that may be hard to identify – detecting broader patterns which are unique to this set of responses - and more clearly identifying drivers. Finally, it allows us to ask significantly fewer questions – improving the response and completion rate.
Narrative Axes
The High-level Shape of the Conversation
Figure 1: 9 Cluster Narrative Map: The High-Level Shape of the Conversation.
The narrative map uncovers respondent-driven themes and axes, revealing distinct postures shaping companies’ plans and outlooks.
The Vertical Axis
Figure 2: The Vertical Axis — Minimizing Change vs. Anticipating Change.
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Minimising Change: Can We Maintain? (18.2% of responses)
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Anticipating change: Can We Adjust? (19.1% of responses)
The vertical axis highlights contrasting strategies, balancing defensive control with dynamic responses to external change.
The Horizontal Axis
Figure 3: The Horizontal Axis — Strategic vs. Pragmatic
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Regional Strategy: Longer Term (18.5% of responses)
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Local Pragmatism: Here and Now (12.7% of responses):
The horizontal axis contrasts regional strategic planning with the pragmatic considerations of operating locally, reflecting Hong Kong’s dual character.
The Centre Cluster
Figure 4: The Central Cluster — Calibrating Plans/Gauging Confidence.
Calibrating Plans/Gauging Confidence in Hong Kong vs. Elsewhere (31.5% of responses):
Respondents are reassessing Hong Kong’s role, balancing regional expansion and alternative locations against the city’s current advantages and challenges.
The Detailed Narrative Themes
What are the Specific Drivers?
Figure 5: Bar graph quantifying themes in Figure 1.
Above are the detailed themes aligned with Figure 1’s axes, quantified in Figure 2, and highlights nine narrative clusters from largest to smallest.
Stability Seeking
The stability seeking cluster reflects a defensive approach, emphasising cost control, cautious planning, and adapting to a “new normal” admin uncertainty
Contingency Planning
Many respondents are weighing relocation, balancing short-term commitments with diversification efforts while some prepare exit strategies or remain committed.
Trends by Narrative Cluster
Sentiment scoring shows ‘mainland integration’ as most positive, while ‘contingencies’ and ‘stability seeking’ are least.
Sentiment by Narrative Cluster
Figure 6: Bar graph of sentiment composition(y) by narrative cluster(x)
Expressive Energy by Narrative Cluster
Figure 7:Bar graph of Expressive energy composition(y) by narrative cluster (x)
Higher word counts in “Can HK come through” and “Adjusting HK trajectory” indicate strong emotional investment in Hong Kong’s future.
Time Series View
The short times series may help inform qualitative judgement on what is changing.
Although not designed as a longitudinal study, the survey remained open for several months, providing the opportunity to observe shifts in the narrative from month to month. As quantities are limited and the responses over time were incidental rather than by design, we cannot make strong empirical conclusions based on this data.
Three narratives trending up suggest that an increasing proportion of respondents are looking outward – considering Hong Kong in regional context, considering Hong Kong’s integration with the mainland, and/or planning contingencies
Trending Up
Figure 8: Time series showing narrative clusters showing a upward trend.
Trending Down
Figure 9: Time series showing narrative clusters showing a downward trend.
By contrast, three Hong Kong-focused narratives shown above were trending downward over the same period of time. This suggests a pattern in which people are less inclined over time to assess their forward view based on Hong Kong alone. They are increasingly looking at the future in a wider context. This is neither good nor bad per se – it just means people may be seeing Hong Kong less as a ‘stand-alone’ and more in the context of interdependencies with China and Asia
Data by Industry
Financial Sector
Respondents in finance are more focused on pragmatic opportunism and stability seeking
Figure 10: Response cluster of the Finance industry.
Technological Sector
Technology companies’ responses are concentrated on the strategic narratives: mainland integration, and Hong Kong’s role as a hub.
Figure 12: Response cluster of Technology Companies.
Hospitality & retail sector
Hospitality & retail respondents are disproportionately referring to contingencies/possible moves.
Figure 11: Response cluster of the Hospitality and Retail industry.
Company Plans in Hong Kong
Company Plans in Hong Kong
Figure 13: Number of responses(y) and by High-level clusters(x)
Response on How Crucial is Hong Kong
Figure 14: Number of responses(y) and by High-level clusters(x)
Acknowledgment
Phrasia provides advanced signals intelligence for companies, helping them to proactively identify the drivers of their business.
This survey and report are conceived, designed, and written by EuroCham, with the support of Phrasia.The narratives flowing among your stakeholders, customers & employees are powerful drivers of future preference & behaviour. They are unstructured data, loaded with early indicators, yet chronically underleveraged by existing analytics tools. Built on deep learning, Phrasia is the first and only company tool to quantify narrative signals quickly, and at scale – enabling early, actionable understanding of what’s coming, and why.
By modelling narrative signals versus outcomes, organizations can act earlier and more effectively to drive performance, prevent risks, reduce churn, anticipate market shifts, and engage stakeholders.