Hong Kong tourist sector asks for help after 25pc fall in festive tours
Decline in mainland visitors over the Christmas holiday continues a worrying year-long trend
Hong Kong’s flagging tourism industry urged the government to do more to attract visitors, as the number of mainland tour groups visiting the city slumped by a quarter during the Christmas period.
Travel Industry Council executive director Joseph Tung Yiu-chung yesterday said that despite Christmas not being a public holiday on the mainland, about 400 groups usually visited the city daily. However, that figure had slumped to only about 300 this year.
The latest figures were consistent with a year-long trend described by the council’s chairman, Jason Wong Chun-tat, earlier this month.
Wong said a sentiment in Hong Kong against mainland China and the death of a mainland tourist in October had caused a drop of 20 per cent in the number of tourist groups from across the border visiting Hong Kong so far this year.
In February, Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah said an additional HK$80 million would be allocated for the Tourism Board to step up its promotional efforts.
However, Tung believed that tourism growth had slowed down since then because a relatively stronger Hong Kong dollar, which is pegged to the US dollar, made it more attractive for mainland travellers to shop in Japan and South Korea.
