High spenders to offer HK$1.5b boost
Expanded scheme could attract extra 300,000 visitors every year, Lee says
The expansion of mainland China’s solo traveller scheme is expected to bring about 300,000 extra visitors to Hong Kong and generate up to HK$1.5 billion in additional revenue each year, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said yesterday.
Lee said visitors from the eight newly added cities would be high spenders and help boost the economy.
Lee also revealed that airlines had plans to increase services to some of the cities and the Tourism Board would also distribute HK$200 vouchers to travellers from these eight places that were added to the Individual Visit Scheme.
Lee told the media before his weekly meeting with the Executive Council that the mainland cities, all provincial and regional capitals with large populations and rapid economic growth “were highconsumption cluster cities”.
“The newly added eight cities under the Individual Visit Scheme are estimated to bring about 300,000 tourists to Hong Kong every year, as well as around HK$1.2 billion to HK$1.5 billion in spending. This amounts to an added economic value of about HK$700 million to HK$900 million,” he said.
The eight cities are Taiyuan in Shanxi; Hohhot in Inner Mongolia; Harbin in Heilongjiang; Lhasa in Tibet; Lanzhou in Gansu; Xining in Qinghai; Yinchuan in Ningxia; and Urumqi in Xinjiang.
Lee said the additions would bring several benefits to the economy, including a bigger pool of overnight visitors, and push the tourism industry to improve its offerings and services.
“This presents a good opportunity for the Hong Kong industry to adapt, change, create and innovate,” he added.
Lee said the cultural and religious backgrounds of the added cities were varied and visitors’ preference and spending habits would differ greatly as well.
Tourists can apply for a visa under the solo traveller scheme that allows them to stay in Hong Kong or Macau for up to seven days at a time. They can choose from single-entry or double-entry visas, valid for three months or a year.
Lee said that, in response to calls for more direct flights to and from the eight cities, the Transport and Logistics Bureau and the Airport Authority would work with airlines to boost services on these routes.
Only four of the eight locations – Taiyuan, Lanzhou, Yinchuan and Urumqi – have non-stop flights to Hong Kong at present, but a few airlines had plans to increase the number of flights to Urumqi, as well as introduce new ones to Harbin, he added.
Lee said the government would “spare no effort to build platforms and create opportunities” for tourism, such as invitations to travel industry representatives and media from the eight cities to visit, as well as the use of mainland social media to promote Hong Kong attractions.
Lee said he agreed with a recent call by Xia Baolong, the director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, for authorities to treat every corner of Hong Kong as a potential magnet for tourists.
He added the government was adopting different ways of developing tourism, such as advertising popular hiking trails, walled villages in the New Territories and the Yau Ma Tei Police Station heritage attraction. Beyond the authorities’ efforts, however, “the industry must also do its best to play its role”, he said.
Given opening up Hong Kong to more cities also intensified competition in an economy that “eliminates the weak and retains the strong”, Lee urged the industry to be “vigilant and adaptable, improve its quality and strength and demonstrate the perseverance and strength of Hong Kong people”.