Are cheap 68 yuan tours for mainland visitors to Hong Kong good for the economy?

Low-budget tours to Hong Kong costing as little as 68 yuan (US$9.35) have been a popular option among mainland visitors over the Labour Day “golden week” holiday, sparking concerns about how such minimal spending by tourists in the city would benefit the local economy.

A search by the Post on China’s leading online travel booking platform Fliggy found that a one-day tour to Hong Kong for a group of 60 on May 6 further dropped to between 35.9 yuan and 39.9 yuan per person, including lunch.

Fliggy is owned by Alibaba Group Holding, which also owns the South China Morning Post.

The budget tours, which require participants to apply for their own travel visas, mainly target those visiting Hong Kong from Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Guangzhou. They cover eight major attractions in a single day.

Tourists are asked to assemble at designated places at 8am, before they are taken to the Wong Tai Sin temple, the West Kowloon Cultural District’s Art Park and the area outside the Hong Kong Palace Museum in the morning.

After the morning visits, tourists have lunch at a restaurant selected by the tour guides.