HONG KONG. Hong Kong will ask Beijing to allow more Chinese tourists to visit the city on their own instead of requiring them to join tour groups, Financial Secretary Henry Tang said this week in his budget speech for 2004/2005.
China started allowing residents of Beijing, Shanghai and many cities in southern Guangdong province to visit Hong Kong on an individual basis late last year, quickly boosting the tourism and retail sectors.
“The government will continue its discussions with the mainland authorities with the aim of expanding the scheme to cover more provinces and cities,” Tang said.
He also detailed HK95 million in funding for various tourism promotions and training activities.
Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) executive director Clara Chong said she was greatly encouraged by the government’s assurance of the importance of tourism as an economic pillar of Hong Kong. “Plans are already in hand to implement booster campaigns in Japan and the US. Among our markets, mainland China enjoys huge growth potential,” she said.
The Individual Visit Scheme will be expanded to include all of neighbouring Guangdong province from May, taking the total number of mainlanders eligible to visit Hong Kong whenever they wish to 100 million.
To tap the mainland market, the HKTB has recently conducted a China outbound travel study to identify the main source regions and visitor segments. The study has identified 24 high potential cities in the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze Delta and Bohai Rim region. HKTB recently opened an office in Guangzhou.
Some 15.5 million people visited Hong Kong in 2003, -6% down on 2002. The number of visitors to Hong Kong this year is expected to grow by +32% to a record high, with over half of them mainland Chinese. Visitor arrivals in January were up +13.1% year-on-year with mainland visitor numbers up +48.5%. Japanese visitor numbers were down -44.7%. Taiwan (-14.9%), South Korea (-24.9%) Australia (-12.8%), US (-21.3%) and most other major tourism source markets were down in January. Thus January marked a huge shift in terms of Hong Kong’s dependence on mainland tourists.
Another black cloud on the horizon for downtown retailers is the government’s intention to introduce a Goods and Services Tax in Hong, which could impact on the island’s reputation as a cheap shopping paradise.
