24 Jan 2011

Tougher licensing for foot massage parlours is being urged, as many operators are said to be abusing a loophole to sell sexual services.
The law requires a licence only if the operator offers massage services to a client of the opposite gender, between shoulder and knee.

The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong visited foot massage operators in old buildings in Sham Shui Po where suspicious parlours are said to be found.

Vincent Cheng Wing-shun, Sham Shui Po district councillor with the DAB, said parlours of such type had mushroomed over the past decade, since the government relaxed licensing requirements, including, in 2001, exempting parlours offering only foot massage from getting a licence.

Conscientious operators said their image had deteriorated, and called for a proper licensing system to help users.

Cheng said colleagues had found about 50 suspicious operators in Sham Shui Po. "If we include districts like Cheung Sha Wan, the number of such operators could be over 80," he said. "Such shops usually concentrate in old buildings with no steel gates or security personnel."

Chow Chun-yu, the Entertainment Business Association's executive director, said shops could be set up easily. "You can run a foot massage business after only renting a place and buying two sofas."

One foot massage operator in Hung Hom, who declined to give her name, said: "Some customers think we are shops offering vice activities and refrain from visiting us."

Cheng said: "Residents told us scantily-clad women roam their buildings and those shops operate until late into the night. Some female residents have been accosted by suspicious clients and asked for their price."

As of the end of November, police had issued 156 licences for parlours providing full-body massage to clients of the opposite sex.

But Cheng said the figure severely under-represented the actual number of shops providing full-body massage, many of them purporting to be just foot massage parlours.

A police spokesman said last night that foot massage parlours were not required to be licensed but were still regulated by other relevant ordinances. He said officers would enforce the law if they found any involved in vice activities.