The Tourism Board will give HK$200 vouchers to visitors from eight Chinese cities who will soon be able to come to Hong Kong under an expanded solo travel scheme, allowing them to experience the city’s “extraordinary charm.”
Addressing reporters on Tuesday, Chief Executive John Lee said the vouchers could be spent at “many different types of restaurants and shops.”
“The government and the Tourism Board have prepared a series of arrangements so mainland Chinese visitors can feel like they are in a home away from home, and personally experience the extraordinary charm of Hong Kong as an international city and dining capital,” Lee said in Cantonese.
His comments came as Beijing announced on Saturday that residents of eight Chinese cities would be added to the Individual Visit Scheme. The policy allows visitors to come to Hong Kong as a solo traveller, meaning they would not need to join a tour group.
With the expansion coming into effect on May 27, the scheme will cover northern Chinese cities including Urumqi in Xinjiang, Lhasa in Tibet, and Hohhot in Inner Mongolia. Other newly-added cities include Taiyuan, Harbin, Lanzhou, Xining, and Yinchuan – all capitals of their respective provinces.
Lee said the eight cities have large populations who have high spending power. Five of them are among the top six mainland Chinese cities for GDP growth, he said, adding that the expanded scheme is estimated to attract 300,000 visitors to Hong Kong yearly.
The programme will soon cover the capitals of all Chinese provinces and autonomous regions, Lee said.
“This further fuels our mainland compatriots’ interest in visiting Hong Kong,” the leader told reporters.
He added that, as the eight cities are further from Hong Kong compared to other cities already part of the scheme, the expansion would bring more overnight visitors to the city.
‘Timely boost’ to hotels, retail sectors
The additions bring the total number of mainland cities under the Individual Visit Scheme to 59. In February, Xian and Qingdao were added to the list.
Alan Chan, the chief operations officer of hotel giant Miramar Group, said on Monday that the widening of the scheme would be a “timely boost” to local tourism-related industries, such as hotels and retail as May and June were typically low seasons.
Chan also said the residents from these eight mainland cities would be considered long-haul visitors and they would likely stay overnight in Hong Kong, unlike travellers from nearby cities such as Shenzhen and Zhuhai, who might opt for day trips.
Lee said on Tuesday that – out of the eight cities – only four of them had direct flights to Hong Kong. The Transport and Logistics Bureau and the Airport Authority were discussing with airlines to possibility of enhancing flight services between Hong Kong and the cities, he added.
Flights between Hong Kong and Harbin, and Hong Kong and Urumqi, would increase next week, Lee said he had learned.
Hong Kong has been struggling to win back tourists since all Covid-related travel curbs were lifted early last year. The pace of international tourist arrivals to Hong Kong has resumed at a much slower rate than that of mainland Chinese tourists.
The city welcomed almost 3.4 million visitors in April, according to provisional figures released by the Tourism Board on Tuesday. Though it represents a 17.3 per cent increase compared to last April, the number of arrivals still lags behind the figures seen before the city enacted Covid-19 travel restrictions in 2020.
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