‘Add more mainland cities to individual travel scheme’
Hong Kong should allow visitors from more mainland cities to come on individual trips to increase the number of tourists staying overnight and strengthen the sector, according to industry representatives.
Alan Chan Chung-yee, the chief operations officer of the Miramar Group, which runs two hotels locally, yesterday noted daily flights and train services operated between Hong Kong and 26 mainland cities yet they were not covered by an official scheme for individual visitors.
“They comprise 17 cities that can be reached via the high-speed rail link and nine other cities that have direct flights to Hong Kong,” he told a radio programme. “If we do not expand the coverage of the scheme, we are wasting these services.”
The Individual Visit Scheme, introduced in 2003, allows residents from 49 mainland cities to visit Hong Kong in an individual capacity instead of with tour groups. Expansions to the scheme have been debated over the years, with past officials citing concerns over sufficient infrastructure and potential disturbances to Hongkongers’ daily lives because of an uptick in visitors.
The scheme has not added any new cities since 2007. “It has been 16 years since we last expanded the scheme, and the population of the cities that are currently covered only accounts for 30.1 per cent of the country’s overall population,” Chan said.
“We have not tapped into the individual travel market yet.”
The 26 cities serviced by daily flights and trains would add an extra 10.6 per cent of the country’s population to the scheme, he said.
Separately, lawmaker Edward Lau Kwok-fan agreed the individual travel scheme should be expanded to more major cities such as Harbin, as its further distance meant visitors were likely to spend more days in Hong Kong if they came.
“Visitors from the mainland remain our main source of tourists,” he said yesterday at a Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong
Kong press conference. “Whether they choose to stay overnight or leave the same day, we believe they still have spending power. We should take advantage of that and continue to improve our connectivity with the mainland.”
Lau said now was the “right time” to reintroduce the multipleentry visa scheme for Shenzhen residents, which was halted in 2015 due to overcrowding and parallel trading issues, with the goal of eventually expanding it to the rest of the Greater Bay Area and Guangdong province.
Hong Kong welcomed 34 million visitors last year, with the figure from the Tourism Board for December reaching 65 per cent of the pre-pandemic level.
Economist Andy Kwan Cheukchiu said he did not foresee parallel trading problems, observed in previous years when the visa was still in place, returning. “The spending habits of mainland tourists have changed and shopping here is not as attractive,” he said. “If it was still a problem, we would have seen hints of it by now.”
Chinese University economist Terence Chong Tai-leung agreed, saying: “That was nearly 10 years ago. They can easily find duty-free shopping in other places like Hainan Island [now].”
Both welcomed expanding the individual travel scheme to more cities as well, noting Hong Kong’s slower-than-expected tourism recovery.
Other economists had previously poured cold water on the schemes in terms of their economic benefits, saying social conflicts could return along with more tourists.
Chan said the city had enough hotel rooms and border checkpoints to handle a larger number of individual mainland visitors.
“Sixteen years ago, there were not enough hotel rooms,” he said.
“We have 92,000 hotel rooms now and more than 100,000 rooms including guest houses. Last year, there were an average of 17,000 unoccupied hotel rooms per day, which is enough to handle more mainland cities.
“We have also opened many checkpoints in the past 16 years, such as Shenzhen Bay and Liantang-Heung Yuen Wai.”