CITY IN TALKS TO WIDEN MAINLAND TRAVEL SCHEME
Chief secretary wants to see more visitors from second- and third-tier cities, but think-tank consultant says Beijing will tread cautiously
Hong Kong authorities are in talks with their mainland counterparts on expanding a travel scheme to allow more residents of second- and third-tier cities to visit, with the possibility of a multiple-entry arrangement.
Chief Secretary Eric Chan Kwok-ki said he hoped more visitors could come from the mainland “as soon as possible” to help boost the tourism sector, although he stopped short of giving a timeline.
“We are … looking to expand the list of cities under the scheme and also exploring the possibility of multiple-entry endorsements,” he told a radio programme.
But the government would have to liaise with authorities in different provinces and cities, which could “take some time”.
Residents from 49 mainland cities can currently travel to Hong Kong twice a year under the Individual Visit Scheme and stay up to seven days each time. The scheme, introduced in 2003, accounted for 60 per cent of all mainland arrivals last year.
Starting in 2009, Shenzhen residents were also allowed to apply for “multiple-entry” Individual Visit Endorsements, which enabled holders to freely enter Hong Kong within a oneyear validity period.
The “multiple-entry” provision was replaced by a “one trip a week” arrangement in 2015 due to Hongkongers’ concerns over parallel trading and crowding.
Lau Siu-kai, a consultant for Beijing’s semi-official think tank, the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, said the mainland would take a cautious approach in discussions to avoid a repeat of past mistakes.
He said there was a time when mainland tourists visited in droves and many took advantage of the city’s public resources, which resulted in friction with locals.
“This led to the rise of localism and talks of independence in
Hong Kong, which harmed relations between the city and the mainland and damaged Hongkongers’ impressions of Chinese authorities,” Lau said.
The authorities were also aware that many Hongkongers spent a lot of time over the border but not many mainlanders were going to the city, he added.
“Tourism can help create job opportunities, especially for low-earning groups in Hong Kong. It can also improve Hongkongers’ confidence in the economy, revitalise the city and stabilise the political situation.
“Mainland authorities might take a step-by-step approach to test the waters and observe whether people are pouring into Hong Kong and what kind of effect this would have on people’s daily lives.
“Would places for daily supplies or groceries be replaced by pharmacies or herbal medicine stores? We can’t say yet as we need to consider the whole picture.”
Lawmaker Holden Chow Ho-ding said he was not worried parallel trading would undergo a resurgence even if more mainland tourists were allowed to visit.
Parallel traders buy goods in Hong Kong and then resell it on the other side of the border at a profit to evade hefty mainland import and value-added taxes. Popular products include cosmetics and medication.
“The consumption pattern has changed,” Chow said. “Daily necessities can be bought online or through other channels. There is no need for parallel trading and not much money can be made from it any more.
“If we talk about residents in cities that cannot travel to Hong Kong yet, it is unlikely they will be coming by road. They will be visiting via the high-speed rail or plane, which is very different to Shenzhen visitors who go back and forth everyday.”
The chief secretary also said that extended checkpoint operating hours were not feasible on a daily basis, despite the number of visitors returning to pre-pandemic levels.
“We added the round-theclock border control [over the Lunar New Year period], but we cannot do this every day,” he told the show. “It will depend on our actual needs. If the demand is weak, it’d be a waste of resources.”
After thousands of tourists were left stranded at the border following New Year’s Eve celebrations on January 1, Chan held talks with mainland authorities on extending operating hours at checkpoints connected by railway services and increasing the number of 24-hour border crossings for the Lunar New Year period.
The Shenzhen Bay checkpoint operated 24 hours a day over a five-day period from February 9 to February 13. It usually operates between 6.30am and midnight.
“There are fewer people passing through the borders at night,” Chan said. “We’d encourage visitors to stay in Hong Kong if they’re here until 3am or 4am. We don’t have enough manpower and they might have a long wait.”
Over the Lunar New Year period of February 10 to 13, the numbers of inbound and outbound visitors returned to pre-pandemic levels and operations were smooth, Chan said.
He said that before the pandemic visitors stayed 3.1 nights on average, and that rose slightly to 3.4 in the fourth quarter of 2023.
In the years before the pandemic, about 40 per cent of mainland visitors would stay overnight and that number had increased to 46 per cent last year.
The city welcomed nearly 4 million visitors in December, three-quarters of whom were from the mainland, according to Hong Kong Tourism Board statistics. It marked an increase from 160,578 in December 2022 when the city’s pandemic restrictions were still in place.