Bye bye, buy, buy, buy

The mainland Tourism Law delivered a kick in the belly to seedy tour operators making money by browbeating tourists to buy, buy, buy at local retail shops.儲存 But as Oswald Chan reports, the changes may inspire a healthier evolution of Hong Kong's tourism industry. Tsang Sai-ping, is a local tour guide who's almost broke. Times are tough. The tour business from the mainland crashed to the floor over the National Day holiday. Tsang depended on mainland tour groups to make a living. The mainland's new Tourism Law may have changed that. "This year on the National Week holiday, the number of mainland tour groups to Hong Kong fell 95 percent compared to last year. My livelihood is at risk. I can't earn a living from that," Tsang tells China Daily. "Many mainlanders cannot afford to visit Hong Kong anymore because the increase in tour prices is beyond their means," Tsang warns. Herd mentality "Morale of local tour guides who have depended on these mainland visitors is low. They don't know if they can survive in this tough time," Tsang adds. The new law came into effect, Oct 1, just in time for the National Day holiday. Before that, many local travel agents lived off the avails of so-called low-cost tour packages, whose real purpose was herding mainland visitors into store after store, and putting them under heavy pressure to buy. Mainland tourists would pay nothing or almost nothing for these particularly offensive packages. The "pressure" to buy from the retail shops could get abusive. Videos of some ugly incidents turned up on YouTube to prove it, and in the process, gave the Hong Kong tourist industry a shiny black eye. Tour guides were shown denouncing their mainland guests as "cheapskates", warning that they'd have to do better to recompense their hosts for the fares that brought them to Hong Kong. It was ugly. A mainland visitor died from a heart attack after being confronted by one local tour guide. The new law sweeps those lower-than-cost tours off the table. They're banned. The new law effectively doubles the cost of tours to Hong Kong, enough that mainland tourists may go somewhere else. The cost of travel to places other than Hong Kong has become competitive. This year's National Day figures broke down this way, according to the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong (TICHK): 260 mainland travel tours visited Hong Kong — a 30 percent drop from last year. Shopping tours, which accounted for 80 percent of mainland groups last year, made up only 20 percent this year. "After the implementation of the Tourism Law on the mainland, we predict the number of mainland tour groups will drop 5 percent to 6 percent this year — to approximately 4.04 million from 4.08 million," a Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) spokesman tells China Daily. Customer protection "The new legislation will contribute to the healthy and sustainable development of Hong Kong's tourism trade in the long run by safeguarding the tourist's rights and by enhancing overall tour quality," the spokesman adds. The TICHK says the mainland's new tourism legislation should not seriously affect the local inbound sector, because only eight percent of mainland tourists travel to Hong Kong in tour groups; and mainland tourists under the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS), are exempted from the new law. "The Tourism Law kills the motivation for mainland tour companies to offer zero-fare tour packages to Hong Kong. So the law can help foster the healthy development of the local tourism sector by protecting the customers' interests," TICHK Chairman Michael Wu says. Tourism is one of the pillars of Hong Kong's economy. Visitor arrivals for 2012 increased 16 percent over the previous year to 48.6 million, enriching the local economy by HK$296 billion ($38.2 billion), a 14.6 percent increase over the previous year. The mainland continued to be the city's larmini storageest source of visitors, with 71.8 percent of Hong Kong's tourist arrivals. Of the 34.9 million mainland tourists, 23.1 million came via IVS, up 26.2 percent on 2011. The IVS, which was first introduced in July 2003 was intended as a liberalization measure under the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA). The arrangement permits mainland visitors from designated cities to visit Hong Kong for up to seven-days without the need to join tour groups. Prior to that, the only way for mainlanders to visit Hong Kong other than on organized tours was to come here on business visas. The IVS has been extended since and today, is open to residents of 49 designated mainland cities. Though the mainland's new tourism legislation should not jeopardize local inbound tourism, the industry cannot afford to be complacent without risking long-term competitiveness, says Simon Lee, Senior Lecturer at the Chinese University's Faculty of Business Administration. That long-term competitiveness must be based upon the sustainability of the city's inbound tourism sector. "The Hong Kong government must devise long-term strategies to promote the sustainability of the local inbound tourism sector," Lee says. "This can be achieved by launching more in-depth or themed tourist attractions and packaging them to create more variety in what Hong Kong offers tourists, rather than relying solely on the conventional tourist sites" Lee cautions. "Many mainlanders have already visited Hong Kong. They are unlikely to be satisfied with conventional tourist attractions and shopping itineraries again." Since the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland in 2005, most of the spending on tourism infrastructure has been confined to transportation, like the opening of the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal's first berth in June. Inbound tourism is crucial to the city's economic growth because spending by mainland visitors is highly correlated with retail sales growth in the city. Census and Statistics Department figures reveal that while retail sales from 1999 to 2012 rose 148 percent, tourist spending skyrocketed 693 percent. The share of tourist spending by mainland visitors increased from 33 percent in 1999 to 57.9 percent in 2012, a clear indication of the increasing importance of mainland tourists. There are significant changes in the city's visitor profile. For example, a higher proportion of visitors arrive and leave Hong Kong on the same day. More tourist dollars are spent on mid-range fashion items, than luxury products, and per capita spending among visitors has gone down. These factors have hurt local retail sales. Not only is Hong Kong's tourism industry being affected by the new Tourism Law — it's also affected by the rising value of the yuan. The stronger currency has inspired mainland travelers to go farther afield, such as the US and Europe, for their luxury purchases. The Chinese Luxury Consumer Survey 2012, conducted by Hurun Report shows the nation's high-net-worth individuals (assets of 10 billion yuan), favored France, the US and Australia as the top three international travel destinations last year. "The Hong Kong inbound tourism industry is at a crossroads. The reliance on mainland shopping tours to fuel tourism industry development and economic growth is non-sustainable. To attract more tourists with high-spending power to Hong Kong, the city must provide different travel-themed tours to satisfy different tourists' demands," Lee warns. It is now necessary for Hong Kong to formulate long-term strategy to foster sustainability of the local inbound tourist industry. Contact the writer at oswald@chinadailyhk.com The new legislation will contribute to the healthy and sustainable development of Hong Kong's tourism trade in the long run by safeguarding the tourist's rights and by enhancing overall tour quality." spokesman Hong kong tourism boardself storage