Hong Kong’s tourism sector can look to mainland China for a boost but avoid overreliance, leading business group says
Hong Kong’s tourism industry can look towards supportive measures from mainland China to overcome a “rough patch” but should avoid overreliance on the market, the head of the city’s most prominent chamber of commerce has said.
Separately, the chamber also said that correcting misunderstanding of the city’s image among those in the international community could help local businesses.
Betty Yuen So Siu-mai, outgoing chair of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, said on Friday that the city’s tourism sector should press on with measures to lure tourists.
“We do not disagree that Hong Kong is going through a rough patch in the tourism industry,” Yuen said. “We all have to work hard, but the mainland is giving us supportive policies.”
She raised the recent expansion of the individual visitor scheme, which allows residents of certain cities across the border to come to Hong Kong on a solo basis, to Xian and Qingdao.
Yuen added the city also needed to push ahead with efforts to have the duty-free shopping allowance raised for mainland visitors, which is currently capped at 5,000 yuan (US$692).
“We also have to expand our markets and not be overreliant on just the mainland market, including new countries in Asean and the Middle East.”
Xia Baolong, the director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, on Thursday urged the local government to revitalise its tourism offerings amid “profound changes” in the market and explore every corner of the city as a potential spot to lure visitors.
Hong Kong welcomed 3.4 million visitors in March this year, with those from the mainland accounting for 72 per cent of the figure.
The Tourism Board earlier said one of its major focuses would be tapping into the Middle Eastern market, a plan that aligns with Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative to create a China-centred trade network covering more than 100 countries.
On Hong Kong’s image to foreign businesses, Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung, the chamber’s legislative council representative and member of the key decision-making Executive Council, said it was crucial the city corrected its image among those in the international community.
“There are a lot of untrue statements by foreign media and even politicians,” he said.
“If we do not correct it and publicise the true facts, Hong Kong will not recover. Hong Kong will not get to another level of economic success.”
Lam said the city had already gone from “instability to a very stable economic situation”, and that a number of foreign companies had already returned or were opening new offices in the city.
“Hong Kong is the gateway to the [Greater Bay Area] and the whole of the mainland market … some are coming here also for the Asean market, so just look forward to a better Hong Kong in the coming year,” he said.
The chamber held its annual general meeting on Friday, which also covered the election of a new chair, deputy and vice-chairs for the coming year.
Agnes Chan Sui-kuen, senior advisor of the chairman’s office at Ernst & Young, is set to replace Yuen as the chamber’s chair.
