Chief Executive John Lee on Saturday welcomed news that the central government will add eight mainland cities and all provincial capitals to the solo travel scheme, which will allow more mainlanders to visit Hong Kong from remote locations.
This includes Taiyuan in Shanxi province, Hohhot in Inner Mongolia, Harbin in Heilongjiang, Lhasa in Tibet, Lanzhou in Gansu, Xining in Qinghai, Yinchuan in Ningxia, and Urumqi in Xinjiang. This comes after the Chinese government announced eight more cities. The total number of cities covered by this system is now 59.
The system allows mainland travelers to visit Hong Kong and Macau individually, rather than on group tours, and stay for more than seven days at a time. Residents of eight cities will be able to apply to visit SAR from May 27th.
“All eight mainland state capitals are cities with large populations, strong economic growth, and high consumption levels,'' he said.
“Such further expansion means that all mainland capitals will be covered by the scheme, which will go a long way in boosting economic activity in the tourism, retail, catering and hospitality sectors within the city, and will also encourage other countries “It will promote two-way exchanges between residents of Hong Kong and these provincial capitals,” he added.
Meanwhile, the city's tourism director said that in the face of changing tourism patterns, the special administrative region will soon step up tourism promotion projects in these cities and launch new tour routes and products to attract tourists. Stated.
“In May and June alone, Hong Kong has a series of major events scheduled, including the Cheung Chau Bun Festival, Buddha's Birthday Carnival, Le French May, Chinese Cultural Festival and the Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Race. ” He said.
“We look forward to seeing more visitors from different cities come to explore Hong Kong in depth,” he added.
Timothy Chui, executive director of the Hong Kong Tourism Board, said while these eight cities are not the mainland's largest, they are growing strongly and residents could be attracted to the SAR's vibrant retail sector. Ta.
“Residents in these cities are likely to be less likely to travel outside of their region, so demand for travel is likely to increase. [to other regions] Or for shopping,” he said.
Perry Yu, a lawmaker from the tourism department, agreed about the consumer potential of the eight mainland cities, noting that most of these cities have an average GDP per capita of 100,000 yuan.
But he cautioned that the special administrative region needs to provide more transport routes to these areas to encourage tourism growth.
“There are no direct flights to these cities yet, but you can take high-speed rail to get here. [but] This may result in the need to open more air routes to these cities. “Some airlines are already doing that,” he said.
The Chinese government previously expanded the scheme in February to include tourists from Xi'an and Qingdao.
The expansion comes as Hong Kong and Macau Office Director-General Xia Baolong said that amid “significant changes” in the tourism industry, Hong Kong needs to further utilize the city's rich tourism resources to revitalize tourism services. This came just two days after he spoke to the city's tourism director. .
