One by one the tour buses descended on the blue collar neighborhood in Hong Kong known as To Kwa Wan — literally translated as Potato Bay — unloading throngs of travelers from mainland China outside large restaurants where a quick lunch awaited them inside.

Outfitted in white, red and orange ball caps to denote which tour they belonged to, the visitors crowded the sidewalks, smoked cigarettes under a “No Smoking” sign and bumped into the glass storefront of a real estate office where Nicky Lam, a property agent, was rolling her eyes.

“They’re very loud,” Ms. Lam said, complaining that some of the tourists used her office bathroom and water cooler without asking.

“One tourist came in and asked for restaurant recommendations,” she added. “I stared at him and said, ‘This is a real estate office.’”

The return of budget mainland tour groups in recent months for the first time since China’s borders were closed by the pandemic in early 2020 has revived old tensions in a city transformed by Beijing’s political crackdown.

Before the pandemic, an influx of mainlanders and their wealth into Hong Kong sent prices and rents soaring, fueling frustrations among the city’s residents that sometimes spilled over into outright bigotry. In the nearly three years since Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law over Hong Kong to assert its political dominance, criticism of the mainland has often been muted.

Now, the public response to the budget tourists — arriving on packages that cost as little as $175 for a two-day visit — has been less than welcoming, and at times, downright rude.

Local residents also say the tourists — who tend to travel in groups of two dozen or more — are too noisy, are snarling traffic and are blighting public spaces by squatting and dining on boxed lunches outdoors. One group offended local sensibilities by slurping cup noodles outside a public toilet in Repulse Bay, a beach redoubt of multimillion-dollar homes.

Even some members of Hong Kong’s legislature, which is fully stacked with pro-Beijing lawmakers, have lost patience.

“Can we have some good quality tour groups?” Kitson Yang asked his colleagues during a recent legislative session while holding up printed pictures of the tourists deluging parts of the city.

Before the pandemic and the 2019 pro-democracy protests, mainland visitors powered Hong Kong tourism, comprising nearly 80 percent of all arrivals in 2018. After the city imposed some of the strictest pandemic measures in the world, restaurants, hotels and shops in Hong Kong were starved for business. The arrival of the budget tours coincides with the government’s push to revive tourism in the city of 7.5 million residents. Largely because of a lack of flights, though, high-spending tourists have stayed away,.

Budget mainland tourists don’t face that problem because they travel by bus or boat. But local business owners have complained about their spending habits, which typically amount to a few minor purchases in local pharmacies — akin to visiting New York and coming away with a tube of Neosporin from Walgreens.

“Budget tourists are mainly older people. They don’t spend much,” William Chong, the operator of a pharmacy in Kowloon, said recently after emerging from a six-minute burst of activity in his store — the amount of time tour guides allot each group for shopping in any one store.

In the pharmacy, the visitors swept up ointments and instant coffee, but left high-value goods like ginseng untouched.

On online anti-government forums, the tour groups are providing fodder for ridicule, harking back to the days when some local residents would openly use the slur “locusts” to refer to mainlanders who traveled to Hong Kong to buy cheaper powdered baby formula, medicine and cosmetics to resell in China.

The taunting works both ways. Mainland users of Douyin, the domestic Chinese version of TikTok, have been making hidden camera-style videos mocking Hong Kongers’ poor command of Mandarin, in the predominantly Cantonese-speaking city. Others have posted videos of instances they felt slighted by restaurant staff for using Mandarin.

Miu Wang, a tour guide, was recently on the second deck of a white-and-pink car ferry in Victoria Harbor that had been converted into a floating restaurant. She watched over dozens of mainlanders tucking into a modest spread that included egg drop soup, stir fried lettuce and a braised chicken and potato dish that was mostly potato.

A 20-year veteran of the business, she said Hong Kongers were snobs.

“I need to take care of dozens of visitors at once, “Ms. Wang said about complaints that the tourists exhibit boorish behavior. “I can’t control each of them.”

The city’s tourism minister, Kevin Yeung, has urged residents to be more accommodating, even while calling for stricter oversight of visitors.

“Tourists will make the street crowded, but it is a signal of economic growth,” Mr. Yeung said in a recent television interview. “Hong Kong people have been known to be welcoming. It is the time to show this spirit again.”

To deal with the increased crowds, traffic police now direct buses in neighborhoods like To Kwa Wan. Crowd control barriers on sidewalks funnel tourists toward restaurants.

“I wanted to travel here the last three years but I couldn’t because of the pandemic,” said Zhang Zhanbin, 43, from Hebei Province in China’s north, who was visiting Hong Kong for the first time on a four-day tour that cost about $400.

Mr. Zhang, a mustachioed rubber factory worker, said he could care less about the complaints because Hong Kong was back in Chinese hands, and not a British colony.

“I’m not too worried about Hong Kong people discriminating against us.” he said. “After all, Hong Kong has been returned.”

Hong Kong was supposed to maintain a high degree of autonomy for 50 years after its return to Chinese rule in 1997. The protests that engulfed the city in 2019 were aimed at preserving those freedoms, and ultimately failed. Signs of the city’s authoritarian turn now dot the urban landscape, from the billboards promoting National Security Education Day to the banners extolling the words of China’s top leader, Xi Jinping.

Those changes have made Hong Kong more attractive to mainland visitors like Guo Xiuli, a 56-year-old retired state worker from the southern city of Chaozhou, who spent a recent morning taking photographs in Golden Bauhinia Square, a popular tourist site near the heart of the financial district.

Ms. Guo, who was not a member of a budget tour group, said she had been treated with more respect compared with her first visit to Hong Kong in 2004, when she felt that speaking Mandarin made her a target of bigotry.

“I used to feel rejection, indifference and impatience, especially when I spoke to waitresses or asked for directions on the streets,” said Ms. Guo, who dressed up for her photos in red velour heels and a face mask fashioned from lace and rhinestones.

“I think it is because the mainland’s economy has developed,” she continued. “Hong Kong is not so special by comparison.”

Zixu Wang contributed reporting.

The Harmony of the Seas cruise ship, one of the biggest in the world, with its multiple-deck water slides, zip line and surf simulators, is a favorite among families. But the discovery of a hidden camera in a public bathroom during a recent sailing has many passengers questioning their enthusiasm after the F.B.I. said that minors who appear to be as young as 4 or 5 years old had fallen victim to video voyeurism onboard.

According to an F.B.I. affidavit in support of the criminal complaint and arrest warrant, on April 30, a day after the Royal Caribbean ship departed from Miami for a seven-night eastern Caribbean cruise, a man identified as Jeremy Froias allegedly hid a Wi-Fi camera in a top deck bathroom, pointing its lens toward the toilet. The bathroom was located close to one of the ship’s surf simulators and many passengers used it to change into their swimsuits.

A day later, the camera was spotted by a passenger who reported it to the ship’s security staff. They found hours’ worth of footage showing more than 150 people, including what appear to be at least 40 minors — some of whom were at least partly naked, the charging document said.

The ship stopped in Puerto Rico, where the F.B.I. arrested Mr. Froias and charged him with video voyeurism and attempted possession of child exploitation material.

“Individuals are seen coming into the bathroom to either use the toilet or to change into or out of swimsuits,” the affidavit says. “Froias’s camera captured these individuals in various stages of undress, including capturing videos of their naked genitals, buttocks and female breasts.”

Mr. Froias is a former cybersecurity officer for the Central Florida city of Kissimmee. Footage retrieved from the camera shows Mr. Froias installing the device, the affidavit said. During an interview with the cruise ship security personnel on May 1, he admitted to placing the camera in the bathroom, according to court documents.

Leo Aldridge, a San Juan-based lawyer representing Mr. Froias, declined to answer questions about the case. “Mr. Froias has not been indicted at this time. Therefore, because no criminal charges have been formally filed at this juncture, we have no comments,” he said in a written statement.

The F.B.I. did not return a request for comment.

Mr. Froias appeared for a detention hearing in Puerto Rico this week, and a federal judge ordered his release on the condition that he pay a $25,000 bond, wear an electronic monitoring device and surrender his passport. He is not allowed to access the internet or have unsupervised contact with minors under the age of 18, including his two children.

Jim Walker, a Miami-based maritime lawyer who has represented victims in other voyeurism cases, questioned the amount of the bond. “A $25,000 bond might be appropriate for a single victim, but considering there are at least 150 victims and many dozens of children, according to the F.B.I. affidavit, a bond should not be less than $1,000,000,” he said. He said he has been contacted by passengers who were on the Harmony of the Seas during the incident.

Passengers said Royal Caribbean had failed to notify them about the hidden camera during and after the sailing. They said they found out through the media and an F.B.I. notice seeking to identify potential victims.

“It’s terrifying that passengers and their children were filmed secretly while they were naked using the bathroom,” said April Wise, 52, who was on the cruise with her husband and niece. “Thankfully, we didn’t use that bathroom, but thousands of people were on the ship and they still don’t know if they were filmed or not. It’s unacceptable that Royal Caribbean has not contacted the victims.”

Royal Caribbean declined to comment, but emailed a statement, saying: “We are aware of an incident that occurred on board Harmony of the Seas’ April 29 cruise. The matter was immediately reported to local and federal law enforcement and the guest involved was removed from the ship by authorities for further investigation. As this is an active case, we are unable to share any more details at this time.”

It is not the first time that such an incident has occurred on a cruise ship. In March, an MSC Cruises crew member was caught filming women in a restroom. In 2017, a family found a hidden camera pointing toward their bed in their stateroom on board the Carnival Fantasy, but after conducting an investigation the cruise company said the camera had not been operational.

“It’s so easy for predators to buy small cheap cameras these days,” Ms. Wise said. “Checking for them needs to be part of cruise ship security protocol.”

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Cocaine. Foreign currencies. Firearms. All contraband that customs agents are trained to catch.

But hundreds of pounds of Fruit Roll-Ups?

Welcome to the age of TikTok-influenced smuggling.

Because of a recipe that spread widely on the social media platform, Fruit Roll-Ups — the American-made fruit leather snack that has been passed out to children at baseball games and slumber parties since the 1980s — have become an obsession in Israel, where a shortage means smuggling in the snacks can be highly profitable.

But the Israeli government is cracking down. The Israeli Tax Authority exposed the scheme in a statement on social media last week, saying that inspectors and an undercover unit at Ben Gurion Airport had caught several people, including Americans, trying to bring excessive amounts of the snacks into the country.

The agency has confiscated hundreds of pounds of Fruit Roll-Ups, it said — 661 pounds in one week alone. Given that one Roll-Up weighs in at 0.5 of an ounce, that makes for tens of thousands of individual packets.

The reason for it all? People want their ice cream to crunch, and they’re willing to pay.

The trend began earlier this year when Golnar Ghavami, an influencer who goes by @golisdream on TikTok, posted a video of herself wrapping a scoop of mango ice cream in a Fruit Roll-Up, thinking she was just sharing her “guilty pleasure.”

She showed that the Fruit Roll-Up froze instantly around the ice cream and made a hands-friendly dessert that offers a surprising and satisfying crunch. Ms. Ghavami’s original video now has over 14 million views, and TikTok has been flooded with videos of people trying it out — including some from the official Fruit Roll-Ups account, whose social media managers appeared to be basking in the overnight success.

But the frenzy in Israel left stores across Tel Aviv completely sold out of Fruit Roll-Ups, according to local news reports. When they could get their hands on them, merchants around the country instead started selling individually wrapped Fruit Roll-Ups — which are typically sold in boxes containing several of the snacks — for up to $8 each, the Tax Authority said, even though a box of 10 Fruit Roll-Ups in the United States averages around $3.

The market shortage caught the attention of enterprising minds in America.

In late April, the agency said, an American couple were caught, each carrying a suitcase filled with more than 185 pounds of Fruit Roll-Ups, part of a haul of nearly 375 pounds. The Tax Authority also shared a video of the unusual discovery, which appeared to show a customs official sifting through several suitcases filled only with hundreds of the small silver and red foil packets.

That far exceeded the legal import limit for an individual entering Israel, which is around 11 pounds of a specific food product.

A man’s voice in the video can be heard answering why he had filled two checked bags with Fruit Roll-Ups. “It has something to do with ice cream,” he said, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

More recently, another couple was caught with around 70 pounds of Fruit Roll-Ups, according to the agency. Two single passengers were also caught coming from the United States with large amounts: one with nearly 73 pounds of the snacks in suitcases and another traveling with over 143 pounds of them.

Last week, Israel’s Health Ministry took a stand and issued a warning against Fruit Roll-Ups writ large.

The agency, in a statement on Twitter, called the frenzy and the smuggling attempts “madness.” The confection, the ministry warned, might be photogenic and trendy, but it’s also full of unhealthy sugar and oils.

Instead, it offered an alternative: cucumber rolls.

To understand the forces that have been roiling the biggest media companies, look no further than Disney’s earnings. Streaming economics are improving — considerably so. But not fast enough to offset declines in traditional television, which is in free fall.

Disney said on Wednesday that losses in its streaming business for the most recent quarter totaled $659 million, an improvement from a year earlier (and a vast improvement from the October-to-December period, when losses totaled $1.1 billion). Streaming revenue climbed 12 percent, reflecting a sharp increase in revenue per paid Disney+ subscriber, a metric investors watch closely.

The problem: Disney still relies on old-line TV channels for a colossal portion of its profit — and those outlets are being maimed by cord cutting, sports programming costs and advertiser pullback. Disney’s linear networks (ESPN, Disney Channel, ABC, National Geographic, FX) reported $1.8 billion in operating income, down 35 percent from a year earlier. Revenue fell 7 percent.

Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, called the decline of traditional television “a worrisome circumstance” in an earnings-related conference call with analysts. Disney shares fell by more than 4 percent in after-hours trading on Wednesday.

As part of its push toward streaming profitability, Disney announced that content from Hulu would be made available on Disney+ to subscribers of both services in the United States. Mr. Iger said this “one app experience” would roll out by the end of the year. Hulu, which does not operate overseas, will also continue as a stand-alone product.

Disney+ content is primarily aimed at children and families. The addition of more generalized Hulu content would “increase engagement and increase our opportunity in terms of serving digital ads — growing our advertising business,” Mr. Iger said.

Disney said it would raise the price for ad-free subscriptions to Disney+ later this year, in part to push more viewers toward cheaper subscriptions that allow for advertising (which, in turn, would allow Disney to increase advertising rates). Disney most recently raised the ad-free price in December: Those subscriptions now cost $11, up 38 percent from what Disney previously charged. The option with advertising costs $8.

Disney owns 67 percent of Hulu, with Comcast holding the balance. Under a 2019 agreement, Disney has an upcoming opportunity to buy out Comcast. (Estimates start in the $9 billion range.) Mr. Iger indicated on Wednesday that Disney would like to make that deal.

“We’ve had some conversations with them already,” he said. “I can’t really say where they end up.” Mr. Iger notably started the conference call by congratulating Comcast, an archrival, on the success of its animated “Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which has collected $1.2 billion worldwide.

Disney+ subscriber counts have abated over the past six months, in part because Disney has pulled back on expensive “subscriber acquisition” efforts — marketing campaigns that try to persuade people to subscribe. Disney+ now has about 158 million subscribers worldwide, a 2 percent decline from December, with most of the loss coming from ultra-low-priced subscriptions in India. Disney+ peaked with 164 million subscribers in October.

Disney had 231.3 million subscriptions across Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ in the quarter, down from 234.7 million in December.

Unlike most of its competitors, Disney has a safety net in the form of theme parks. Operating profit in the company’s Parks, Experiences and Products division climbed 22 percent, to $2.2 billion, as Disney resorts in Shanghai and Hong Kong finally began to recover from the pandemic. Disneyland Paris continued its attendance surge, which started last summer with the opening of a Marvel-themed expansion.

Attendance also increased at Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in California, although higher costs — the introduction of a new “Tron”-themed roller coaster, for instance — dented profitability in Florida. Disney Cruise Line bookings were strong, partly because of a recent expansion of its fleet, the company said.

It was Disney’s first full quarter under the second reign of Mr. Iger, who returned as the chief executive in November. He replaced Bob Chapek, who was ousted by the board following a series of blunders, including the company’s response to contentious education legislation in Florida. The fallout from that matter has led to a legal battle with Gov. Ron DeSantis over Disney World’s future expansion and oversight.

On Wednesday, Mr. Iger said the company was “evaluating where it makes the most sense to direct future investments” for theme park construction, a clear reference to the standoff in Florida. Disney said last month — before the deteriorating situation with Mr. DeSantis — that it had earmarked $17 billion for Disney World expansion projects over the coming decade.

When asked by analysts about the tense situation in Florida, Mr. Iger reiterated that Disney viewed it as unconstitutional retaliation for its opinion on the education legislation.

As a whole, Disney generated $21.8 billion in sales, a 13 percent increase compared with last year, slightly surpassing analyst projections. Disney reported earnings per share of 93 cents, excluding certain items affecting comparisons, on par with analyst expectations.

Disney is in the midst of eliminating roughly 7,000 jobs, or roughly 4 percent of its global total, as part of a campaign to cut costs by $5.5 billion. There have been two rounds of layoffs so far; the final round is expected by the end of the month.

The company continues to pour money into original Disney+ programming. The third season of “The Mandalorian” arrived on the service in March. Another lavish series set in the “Star Wars” universe, “Ahsoka,” is scheduled to roll out on Disney+ this summer.

At the same time, however, Disney said it would begin removing some content from its streaming services, particularly in overseas markets where growth potential is limited. It did not give any examples of the content. Because content costs are amortized over time, early removal would cost Disney up to $1.8 billion. But the move will save Disney money over the long term because the company will not need to pay residual fees (a type of royalty) to show creators.