Expand mainland Chinese solo traveller scheme, Hong Kong tourism leaders say amid Labour Day ‘golden week’ visitor lull

“The daily average of mainland tourists visiting Hong Kong over the May ‘golden week’ period used to exceed the 200,000 mark,” he noted, adding that the spending power of solo travellers also went down by 20 per cent relative to pre-pandemic periods.

“I urge the secretary [to culture, sports and tourism] to discuss with the central government as soon as possible on allowing more cities on the solo travellers’ scheme. It’d be better for the F&B and retail sectors if more people are visiting,” Wong said.

Sales in food and beverage outlets were down by 20 per cent from last year because of fewer mainland visitors and their lower spending power, coupled with 180,000 Hongkongers headed across the border on May 1, according to Wong.

However, he said that the outlets on both sides of the Victoria Harbour benefited from the fireworks display on May 1 which saw a 15 per cent increase in business compared with normal days.

Wong said about 100 visitors from the two mainland cities of Xian and Qingdao came to Hong Kong over the holidays as a result of the first relaxation of the solo visitor scheme, the first update to the list since 2007.

Beijing in February added Xian and Qingdao to the Individual Visit Scheme, which already covered 49 mainland cities including many first-tier ones such as Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Chongqing.

Alan Chan Chung-yee, chief operations officer of the Miramar Group, said business was “not ideal” for the hotel sector this golden week holiday. He shared that his group’s two hotels recorded a 6 per cent and 7 per cent drop in occupancy compared with last year despite a 23 per cent price cut.

“Our suggestion of the most direct way [to boost the number of overnight guests] would be to increase the number of cities in the solo travellers’ scheme,” Chan said. “The vacancy rate of hotel rooms has even gone up since the launch of the solo travellers’ scheme in 2003 by 32 per cent.”

“We need to communicate with the mainland that we could add 26 cities [connected to Hong Kong by high speed rail and by flight] to the scheme with no impact on the capacity,” he added.

Wong from the food and beverage industry said the solo traveller scheme needed a review since many of the 86 million residents in the Greater Bay Area had already been to Hong Kong.

He posed the question: “How can we make Hong Kong more attractive to get repeat visitors?”

Hong Kong leader John Lee Ka-chiu earlier said he would urge Beijing to expand a solo traveller scheme to more mainland Chinese cities, ahead of the five-day holiday period in mainland China between May 1 and May 5.

Timothy Chui Ting-pong, the executive director of the Hong Kong Tourism Association, said competition from travel destinations in the rest of China needed to be considered especially during holiday seasons such as “golden week”.

“There are many choices for mainlanders,” Chui said. “After the pandemic, tourism on the mainland is booming. There is direct competition between cities within the Greater Bay Area and between provinces.”

He added that the average number of visitors in the first three days of the five-day holiday period was “largely ideal” because on normal days the number of visitors stood at 80,000 to 10,000.

“At the same time, we realise that we have shortfalls. The service quality needs improving particularly when our competitors are doing very well. We can be better prepared,” Chui said.