Text: Lu abandoned
According to sources, the Central Committee and the State Council have announced that eight mainland cities will be allowed to travel freely to Hong Kong.
Individual travel in the mainland is called individual travel, and Hong Kong is called independent travel. That is, residents of these cities can no longer participate in tour groups to travel to Hong Kong as in the past, and individuals can take Hong Kong and Macao permits to travel. Most of these eight cities, including Lhasa, Taiyuan, Yinchuan, Harbin, etc., are provincial capitals, which have large populations and relatively strong economic strength.
As soon as the news was released, the chief executives of Hong Kong and Macao immediately expressed their gratitude to the central authorities for this decision. In addition, with the newly announced eight newly opened cities, more than 50 mainland cities can come to Hong Kong, and local residents can come to Hong Kong for free travel, that is, individuals can travel to Hong Kong at any time and no longer need to join tour groups.
In fact, such a policy of free travel was that Hong Kong was in a very difficult situation when the economy was in a very difficult situation, and the central government launched this policy of free travel at that time, and gradually opened up. The first batch of opening-up is mainly in Guangdong and other cities, and these residents can come to Hong Kong to participate in personal tours, shopping, visiting relatives and friends, and do not need a tour group policy. A large number of mainland tourists came to Hong Kong, bringing a strong, promoting, and recovering purpose to Hong Kong's tourism and retail industry, and at the same time, it also drove the domestic demand of the whole Hong Kong, especially popularity.
Because in 2003, in 2003, because of SARS and other factors in Hong Kong, Hong Kong was really very withered on the streets, and popularity came, prosperity, and confidence came. From that time, the policy of free travel to Hong Kong, including the CEPA policy introduced by the central government at that time, which adopted a preferential policy for Hong Kong, allowed some industries in Hong Kong to develop in the vast and huge mainland market of the mainland and enter the mainland market, so these two policies injected a shot in the arm for Hong Kong's economy at that time.
Will the opening up of the last eight cities have much impact on Hong Kong's tourism industry? Is it a new shot in the arm? Except for the Chief Executive expressing his gratitude to the Central Government today, Hong Kong's industry, including the tourism sector, reacted relatively cautiously.
On the one hand, it is because of the problems that Hong Kong's tourism industry is facing. In addition to the fact that the number of tourists has not returned to before the outbreak of the epidemic, the number of tourists has decreased, but more importantly, the consumption pattern of these mainland tourists to Hong Kong has changed. For example, many tourists from the mainland who are relatively close to Hong Kong do not stay overnight, because now there is a high-speed railway, and the customs clearance at the port is convenient, which is much more convenient than before. What's more, the consumption of luxury goods has also decreased significantly compared to the past few years. This is the biggest change in the relationship between Hong Kong's tourism industry and mainland tourists today.
The decrease in the number of people here is only one aspect, and more is a decrease in spending power. Therefore, whether the opening up of the eight cities can bring a major benefit to Hong Kong's tourism industry, in fact, everyone still has a cautious attitude and a cautious attitude. There may be more people, but it remains to be seen what the purchasing power will be and whether it will be able to bring more of this kind of income to Hong Kong's retail, hospitality and so on.
Of course, long-distance tourists in Hong Kong will not return to Hong Kong on the same day as tourists in Shenzhen, Guangdong and other neighboring areas, usually they will stay in Hong Kong for at least one or two days, two or three days, or even four or five days, and so on. But in the past, these cities including Taiyuan, Lhasa, Harbin, and Yinchuan were relatively far away from Hong Kong, and in the past, they mainly came to participate in tour groups, and of course tour groups also had to live in Hong Kong. Therefore, they used to join tour groups to stay, but now that they have increased their free travel, there will be more local residents who come to Hong Kong to travel on their own, which is a very important question.
From another point of view, how many tourists in Hong Kong are independent travelers and do not join tour groups to Lhasa to Taiyuan to Yinchuan? I believe there won't be many. A large number of Hong Kong tourists go to cities in the farther mainland, usually because they don't know much about the local situation, and they are not very familiar with it, and many of them are mainly participating in tour groups, of course, there are also some young people who travel independently, and the situation in both places.
Therefore, such an opening of 8 cities for free travel is good for Hong Kong's tourism industry from any point of view, but such a good thing still needs to be coordinated by various factors. Hong Kong should strengthen its own attractiveness, to mainland tourists, to tourists from all over the world, so that they are willing to stay in Hong Kong for one day, two days, three days, and are willing to pay more money to shop and spend in Hong Kong. It is up to the Hong Kong SAR government to actively promote the construction of various tourist attractions and tourism facilities, and also to rely on all tourism service industries, and they must improve the quality of tourism services. Today, many tourists, including Hong Kong locals, are criticizing the decline in the quality of Hong Kong's service industry, and these problems need to be fundamentally changed in order to change or attract more tourists, including mainland tourists, to Hong Kong.
The recovery of Hong Kong's tourism industry cannot be solved by opening up a few more cities for free travel, the fundamental problem is still up to itself, and it depends on all stakeholders in all walks of life in Hong Kong, who also need to work hard to cooperate.
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