As the evening rush settles over the bustling streets of Central, Amber Wai weaves through the crowd with the ease of someone who knows where she’s going. A camera swings from her shoulder and a bulky backpack thumps lightly against her back, and every few minutes, she stops abruptly, scans the street, and points in front of her. Her client, who had been closely following behind quickly takes the position and poses. Amber crouches down low for the angle, adjusting the tourist’s pose, and the rapid shutter clicks mixed with her voice, “Look over here, smile – three, two, one!” Her client shifts, laughs, and turns as Amber adjusts her angle again. Then, without breaking rhythm, Amber points to the Central Market and slips into the role of guide. It was built, she explains, after the British occupation of Hong Kong Island in 1841, when the growing city demanded a formal public market.
This is no ordinary travel tour. It is accompany shooting, a trendy new travel experience that has arisen in post-pandemic Hong Kong. Amber, a third year student at Hong Kong Baptist University, is part of a growing wave of university students working as “accompany shooters” who are freelance photographers who do more than simply taking pictures. They plan routes, explain neighborhoods, help pose clients, suggest “hidden gems” and package the city into something personal and easily shareable.
After the pandemic, as borders reopened, the Hong Kong government has worked to reshape the city’s tourism industry. For years pre-pandemic, the city was a place where mainland visitors arrived empty handed and left with suitcases bulging with luxury goods, cosmetics, and electronics. Once famed as a “shopping paradise”, Hong Kong has seen a clear shift in visitor behaviour from explosive luxury shopping to deeper cultural and experiential travel, including seeking local experiences, cultural immersion, and customized tours.
According to data from the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB), shopping accounted for nearly 50% of total visitor spending in the pre-pandemic years of 2017-2019, peaking at 51% in 2018. Other categories lagged far behind, with dining and entertainment making up roughly 15.4% and 4.4% respectively. By 2025, both visitor numbers and overall spending had largely recovered to 2019 levels, yet shopping expenditure shrunk significantly, dropping from HK$65.6 billion to HK$46.3 billion. In contrast, spending on “in-depth tour” categories such as dining, entertainment, and hotel rose notably, with dining and entertainment combined increasing 32% from HK$28.6 billion to HK$37.9 billion. Meanwhile, the average length of overnight stays has edged downward, from 3.3 nights in 2019 to 3.1 nights in 2025, signaling a preference for shorter, more efficient trips. A report by The Standard attributes this trend to improved travel convenience between Hong Kong and mainland cities, which allows for more flexible itinerary planning. Hong Kong is still attracting visitors, just not always the ones it used to, and not for the reasons it has once counted on.
That shift is visible on the ground long before it shows up in official data. It is visible in the rise of “citywalk” routes on Xiaohongshu and TikTok, in the appeal of neighbourhood itineraries over shopping mall tours, and in the way visitors now search not just for places to go but for people who can help them experience the city in a more intimate way. Amber’s work sits exactly in that space between tourism, content creation and companionship. It is not quite a tour and not quite a commercial photo shoot. It is something softer, more flexible and, for many clients, more appealing. It is a freelance gig in which tourists hire a photographer, often university students working part-time, for 2 to 4 hours to capture professional photos while exploring Hong Kong. Beyond photography, these shooters also serve as tour guides, crafting customised walking routes based on clients’ preferences and sharing insights into local attractions, culture and cuisine along the way.
Popular customized sightseeing route along the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront provided by Wai. This route combines classic scenery of Victoria Harbour, popular photo spots and retail malls.
Why Students are Filling the Gap
Amber says she entered the field after she graduated from high school as accompany photography was already gaining attention online.“Since I have a strong passion for photography, I started posting different content to attract followers and generate leads,” said Amber. She began by posting photos and short vlogs to attract clients. Now, after three years of experience, Amber charges HK$599 an hour, usually with a minimum of two hours per session. Now known online as Littlestone (小石头啊ber), Amber has built a following of more than 7,700 followers and accumulated nearly 50,000 likes and saves on Xiaohongshu.
Part of the reason why these student photographers are filling the gap in Hong Kong tourism is practicality. Student photographers are often cheaper and more flexible than licensed guides or professional photographers. Amber says accompany shooters typically charge between HK$399 and HK$599 an hour, often with simpler, more direct booking processes handled through private messages through Xiaohongshu or Instagram. Student photographers also work with the logic of social media as the advertisement, portfolio, trusted reviews, and booking system all coexist on a singular digital platform that many young tourists use. In a market shaped by short-form video contents, such an approach can feel more natural and trustworthy than browsing through agency or tourism package websites.
These photographers typically set up accounts on social media platforms like Xiaohongshu, where they post portfolios of past work and listed pricing. Clients browse styles they like and then message the photographer directly to arrange a booking. Discussions cover group size, timing, duration, shooting routes, and preferred aesthetic of photos. Once confirmed, the photographer usually collects a deposit to prevent no-shows, with the balance paid after the session.
Most of her clients first came from mainland China. In a city where mainland visitors still dominate the tourism market, accounting for 76 percent of arrivals and 31.4 million visits (Jan – Oct 2025) according to the Immigration Department. Over four years, her growing reputation on Xiaohongshu received a major boost when she photographed visiting mainland celebrities, such as actress Zhao Yuanyuan. As her page circulated more widely across the sea, Amber’s client base widened. As her English-speaking audience grew, she started posting on Instagram and producing English language contents, broadening her reach as someone local, approachable and trusted online.
Later, overseas clients also began reaching out, including Thai blogger Ravisara P and Earthroomm. Recognizing that international visitors represent another growing market and often face greater language barriers when searching for destinations, Wai expanded her reach through Instagram and English vlogs. “When they saw my vlogs showing a full day accompanying photography, they felt that having a local guide to take them around would make the experience much better,” she said. Her portfolio has since grown to include fashion models visiting Hong Kong, such as Alexa Gabrielle and Yelyzaveta Lytviakova.
Central route provided by Amber. She designed this route that combines historic landmarks, signature Hong Kong scenery, and must-visit locations, allowing visitors to experience the best of Central in the most time-effective way.
What tourists want
For some clients, the product of Amber’s services is not even the image itself, but the mood attached to it. A Shanghainese visitor Bingbing, who booked Amber said she had already been to Hong Kong many times and was not necessarily looking for new places. What drew her to accompany photography was something more abstract. Regular photography, she said, “just captures fixed moments”. Accompany shooting, on the other hand, records a more abstract state of being, a side of herself she might have overlooked in which she finds herself feeling more natural and less posed.
This points to a demand for something softer and more personal than a commercial session especially for returning visitors who already know Hong Kong and want a fresh way to experience it.
For Yelyzaveta Lytviakova, an Ukrainian model who found Amber through her Instagram vlogs, the attraction was less about novelty than atmosphere. She has visited Hong Kong before and she wanted new images for her modeling portfolio and social media. She liked Amber’s photography style, followed her, and eventually booked a shoot. When asked why she chose a student photographer over a more conventional professional service, her answer was not so much on the price. It was about comfort. Shooting with a freelance photographer, she said, “creates a better atmosphere”. Professional photography felt “too commercial” to Lytviakova. With Amber, the pace felt more relaxed and the city itself seemed to change through her lens as she adds that the places she had walked past before suddenly looked beautiful in Amber’s photographs.
Social media becomes more than a marketing tool for freelancers like Amber. It shapes not only how these services are found, but what tourists imagine Hong Kong to be. Accompany shooters’ routes succeed not simply because they are efficient, but because they produce a certain kind of image of Hong Kong: old-fashion trams cutting through Central, red retro-style taxis, escalators, the mix between East and West, and retro and modern. Accompany shooters are helping curate a version of Hong Kong that is more local and easy to consume than luxury retail.
In response to these changes, the Hong Kong government released the Development Blueprint for Hong Kong’s Tourism Industry 2.0 (Development Blueprint 2.0) in 2024. The blueprint positions Hong Kong as an international tourism hub with diverse urban appeal, serving as a center for cultural and artistic exchange between China and the world, while showcasing distinctive local Hong Kong cultural characteristics. It aims to combine tourism with other sectors to create innovative travel services. This includes blending traditional heritage with popular culture, as well as enrich district-level resources, such as promoting citywalk routes, identifying and upgrading popular spots suitable for visitors, and improving photo-worthy locations.
And yet there is still a tension between tourism policy and market reality. Official strategy emphasizes “high-value” overnight visitors and quality tourism while much of the demand is shifting toward a more fragmented, lower-cost, image-driven experience that can be consumed on social media. Student accompany shooters thrive precisely because they are capable of filling this new reality with shorter tours, convenient booking through social media platforms, personalized routes and a desire for content as much as consumption.
