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Mainland Chinese customers spent US$7.6 billion on Hong Kong insurance policies last year, but sales to fall as ‘pent-up’ demand fades: watchdog

  • Sales to mainland visitors last year were particularly strong due to pent-up demand, the IA’s CEO says
  • Demand will return to the average level seen during the years before the pandemic, unlikely to go back to the high seen in 2016: Cheung

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Last year, almost 34 million people visited Hong Kong, including more than 26.8 million from the mainland, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board. This boosted sales of insurance policies, which jumped significantly compared to the three-year Covid-19 period. Photo: Dickson Lee
Enoch Yiu
Mainland Chinese tourists spent HK$59 billion (US$7.6 billion) on insurance policies in Hong Kong last year, the Insurance Authority (IA) said.
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Policy sales have been boosted by the reopening of the mainland border, a weakening yuan and the interest rate gap between China and the United States, the IA added. But sales are expected to drop to the normal levels recorded between 2017 and 2019 of about HK$43 billion and HK$51 billion a year, as “pent-up” demand fades.
“Sales to mainland visitors last year were particularly strong due to pent-up demand, as cross-border travel had been brought to a standstill due to the Covid-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2022,” Clement Cheung Wan-ching, the IA’s CEO, said on Monday.

“This pent-up demand will fade, so demand will return to the average level seen during the years before the pandemic. It is unlikely to go back to a peak of HK$72.7 billion seen in 2016.”

Last year’s tally is a significant jump on the three-year Covid-19 period, which recorded sales of HK$2.1 billion in 2022, HK$700 million in 2021 and HK$6.8 billion in 2020. It is higher than the pre-Covid era too, which reported sales worth HK$43.4 billion in 2019, HK$47.6 billion in 2018 and HK$50.8 billion in 2017, Cheung said.

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A rush to buy insurance policies in Hong Kong in 2016 prompted China to introduce measures the same year that tightened cross-border payments for overseas insurance policies. Cheung, however, hopes the buying trend will continue in the current interest rates and foreign exchange scenario.

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