HK won’t extend visitor scheme
Print Edition
HONG Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said yesterday that the Individual Visit Scheme for tourists from China’s mainland is not expanding and that the government is seeking to tighten it up.
Speaking ahead of an Executive Council meeting yesterday morning, Leung said the number of mainland tourists visiting Hong Kong during the Lunar New Year holiday was similar to last year, but that the number of people arriving under the scheme fell.
Under the current system, the residents of 49 Chinese mainland cities are allowed to apply for a multi-entry travel permit to visit Hong Kong.
Despite the recent lull, Leung said the government will discuss with mainland authorities measures to tighten arrangements under the scheme, adding that he understands that mainland tourism numbers have put pressure on local people’s livelihoods.
“If we have to restrict or decrease the numbers of Chinese mainland residents coming to Hong Kong then we must continue to discuss this with (mainland authorities) ... this is a difficult task,” he said.
Leung said he will raise the issue at the next meeting of the National People’s Congress — China’s legislature — at the beginning of next month.
Contrary to newspaper reports, the scheme is not being extended to more mainland cities, he said, adding that he has been advising the central government not to expand the scheme as Hong Kong’s capacity to receive tourists is limited.
The city government will, however, continue to develop tourism facilities, including shopping malls, to increase its capacity, Leung said.
The number of mainland visitors during the holiday fell by about 0.3 percent, its first dip in about 20 years, said Hong Kong’s Travel Industry Council, adding that the downward turn could presage longer term decreases that could impact on the city’s economy.
“It’s alarming,” said Joseph Tung, the council’s executive director.
About 40 million mainland tourists streamed into Hong Kong last year, spending freely in shopping malls, restaurants and hotels, and emptying stores of necessities such as baby formula and cosmetics.
China is the biggest source of outbound tourists globally, and mainland travelers are expected to double to 200 million by 2020, according to a recent report by brokerage and investment group CLSA.
But just 437,199 of those tourists arrived in Hong Kong early in the new year, the Immigration Department said.
A shortage of hotel rooms and tourist attractions as well as shifting exchange rates are also hurting Hong Kong, the CLSA report said, which predicted Hong Kong’s share of mainland tourists will drop to 26 percent in 2020 from 41 percent in 2013.
The trend in China’s other special administrative region, Macau, is the opposite.
Visits by mainland residents to the city grew 6.9 percent to 434,549 in the first three days of the Lunar New Year, the city’s tourist board said.
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