Hong Kong will need to wait a little longer for influx of tourists from mainland China, industry leaders say
- City can expect uptick in visitors after Lunar New Year as many mainlanders prefer to see family first, lawmaker says
- Some travellers hope to come to Hong Kong to shop for medicine, take Covid-19 vaccine and watch films not slated to be shown on mainland
Mainland Chinese tourists will not return to Hong Kong for at least another month even though Beijing began issuing individual visas on Sunday, industry leaders have predicted.
The deputy director of the Guangdong Tourism Association, Zou Feng, on Wednesday said the central government had yet to internally notify travel agencies about resuming tours or offering hotel and flight packages to the city.
“Therefore, offering any Hong Kong-bound services or outbound ones for now is still a violation of the rules, and any related insurance coverage for the industry has not yet resumed,” he said. “But most workers who used to be with the travel sector are willing to join the industry again.”
He expected the endorsement documents would become available late next month or in early March.
Hong Kong and the mainland resumed quarantine-free travel on Sunday after three years of Covid-19 restrictions, but the number of people crossing the border in each direction every day is fewer than the 50,000 quota.
