By Tu Haiming

Since the resumption of quarantine-free travel between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland in January last year, the city’s tourism sectors such as travel agencies, hotels, shopping malls and restaurants have been eager to make the most business out of the Golden Weeks. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government has also launched various promotion campaigns in the hope of generating more benefits for businesses.

It is approximated that every 1.5 million tourists will translate into 0.1 percentage point of GDP growth for Hong Kong. Both the government and business sectors, therefore, take Golden Weeks seriously.

However, mainland visitors’ consumption habits have changed significantly, with shopping sprees diminishing. Hong Kong’s tourism industry must transform to remain competitive and successful. While Golden Weeks remain important to Hong Kong and should continue to be taken advantage of, the city should also attach great importance to every ordinary week in promoting inbound tourism.

Many years ago, when the high-speed railway between Beijing and Tianjin started operation, on every weekend numerous Beijing residents traveled to Tianjin by high-speed train for holidaymaking.

Cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area are close to each other and mostly connected by high-speed rail, making it easy for residents to commute within the region. The HKSAR government and the tourism industry should not only focus on Golden Weeks but also strive to entice more GBA residents to spend their weekends in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong’s internationality is what appeals to mainland residents. The HKSAR government has been vigorously promoting the mega-event economy by throwing its full weight behind all international events held in the city. This makes sense.

The key now is to plan and organize events on a weekly basis. For example, we could try to organize a major event for every weekend and promote them to GBA residents in advance. Events could include sports games, artistic performances, cultural and art exhibitions, etc. Hong Kong-weekend trips will become a habitual or favored pastime for many GBA residents if the city establishes a reputation as a weekend getaway.

Among the 11 GBA cities, Hong Kong is the best place for bringing world-class cultural/sports events and GBA residents together.

The overall policy landscape suggests that future tourism routes designed by Hong Kong should cover the entire GBA instead of being limited to Hong Kong

Mainland visitors are the key target clients of Hong Kong’s service industry, accounting for 80 percent of the city’s overall visitors. While more efforts should be made to retain this sector, Hong Kong must also work on attracting foreign visitors, with a particular focus on the following three groups:

Visitors from emerging economies. Citizens of fast-growing economies such as Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries now have higher purchasing power and consumption levels, making them an ideal target group for Hong Kong, given their geographical proximity.

Western holidaymakers. Since Hong Kong introduced a new national security regime, the US-led West has pulled out all the stops to discredit the city’s judicial system and business environment. The HKSAR government should step up promotional campaigns in Western countries to attract holidaymakers and open their eyes to the real Hong Kong. This will also help to dispel myths peddled by China-bashers.

Cruise tourists. Twenty cruise ships docked in Hong Kong in March, bringing in 100,000 visitors. Most cruise travelers are high-spending visitors, who could bring in more business.

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu unveiled the Characteristic Local Tourism Incentive Scheme in his 2023 Policy Address, providing cash incentives of up to HK$400 （$51） to each eligible tourist who participates in in-depth travel and thematic travel.

As of the end of March, about 1,600 in-depth travel tours and thematic travel tours had registered their itineraries, with more than 70 percent of them completing their journey in Hong Kong. The incentive program has proved its worth.

Exploring local characteristics is a key subject for Hong Kong’s tourism industry. Currently, there are still plenty of unique local features that have not been tapped into, with martial arts culture being a case in point.

In addition to historical and cultural elements, Hong Kong’s tourism industry can also benefit from extending its itineraries to Guangdong province.

In September last year, the General Office of the State Council issued a notice unveiling several measures for unlocking the potential of tourism consumption and promoting the high-quality development of tourism. One of them stipulates that foreign citizens of countries that have diplomatic ties with China are allowed to visit the nine mainland GBA cities plus the city of Shantou for up to 144 hours without a visa if they join a tour organized by legally registered travel agencies in Hong Kong and Macao.

This policy has brought new opportunities to the tourism industry in the two SARs. Hong Kong should seize this opportunity by designing tourism routes that extend to those 10 Guangdong cities. The two sides can work together to “make the cake bigger” in this way.

A five-hour flight from Hong Kong reaches more than half of the world’s population. With infrastructure between Hong Kong and Guangdong expanding, the city’s status as an international tourism hub is set to gain prominence.

The overall policy landscape suggests that future tourism routes designed by Hong Kong should cover the entire GBA instead of being limited to Hong Kong.

The 2019 riots severely tarnished Hong Kong’s image. Mainland tourists not only were being called “locusts” by the anti-China activists and separatists, but also were subject to bullying and harassment. Such barbarism gave mainland residents the impression that they were unwelcome in Hong Kong. Since then, Hong Kong has lost the majority of its charm to mainland visitors. Therefore, a “courtesy campaign” is crucial to reshaping Hong Kong’s image, and the city has much to do in this area.

In his opening remarks at this year’s National Security Education Day commemoration in Hong Kong, Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that the road from governance to greater prosperity is essentially a path of innovation and transformation. He emphasized the need for Hong Kong society to stay united, adopt new mindsets, and explore new ways and approaches to transform and upgrade the city’s development. This also applies to Hong Kong’s tourism industry, whose recovery and growth cannot solely rely on Golden Weeks but also requires a new mindset, new ways, and new approaches.

The author is vice-chairman of the Committee on Liaison with Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Overseas Chinese of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and chairman of the Hong Kong New Era Development Thinktank.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of Bauhinia Magazine.