Fewer shoppers among flood of mainlanders visiting Hong Kong for 'golden week' holiday
Retailers say sales have slumped, despite surge in number of holiday visitors from across the border as 'forced shopping' law begins to bite
The number of mainland visitors coming to Hong Kong on the first day of the "golden week" National Day holiday is up 60 per cent from last year.
Figures from the Immigration Department show that 159,681 mainlanders visited the city on Tuesday, the first day of the holiday, which runs until next Monday.
Travel Industry Council chairman Michael Wu Siu-ieng said that although a new mainland law that seeks to combat "forced shopping" had led to a slight drop in tour groups visiting the city, many more mainlanders were coming through the individual travellers' scheme.
But many retailers said they had had fewer customers compared to last year, possibly because tour groups were spending more time seeing the sights instead of shopping because of the new law.
The law was approved in April and took effect on Tuesday. It bans travel agencies from bringing tour groups to designated shops "unless prior consensus has been reached" with group members.
Travel agencies charge mainlanders who join "forced shopping" groups very low tour fees as they make their money from commissions paid by the stores.
"We received many complaints [about forced shopping] in the past," said Wu.
