mainland Chinese since the early 1980 s, but it had found itself competing increasingly with other Asian destinations in the 1990s as the Chinese government liberalised travel policies toward other countries such as Thailand Malaysia and Singapore.The Asian financial crisis hit Hong Kong badly in 1997 and raised concerns about the structure of its economy, which relied heavily on the finance and real estate sectors. The crisis highlighted the need for Hong Kong to diversify its economic base, and the government began to call for the development of industries based on knowledge and driven by innovation while continuing to strengthen the service industries which were key contributors to the territory's economy, such as finance, logistics, and tourism. Hong Kong was run as a laissez-faire economy under British colonial rule, and the Hong Kong government continued using this system after the territory reverted to Chinese role
in 1997.But the government took a more active role when market forces alone appeared to be insufficient to drive the territory's structural transformation.