Hong Kong’s tourism sector can look to mainland China for a boost but avoid overreliance, leading business group says

Hong Kong’s tourism industry can look towards supportive measures from mainland China to overcome a “rough patch” but should avoid overreliance on the market, the head of the city’s most prominent chamber of commerce has said.

Separately, the chamber also said that correcting misunderstanding of the city’s image among those in the international community could help local businesses.

Betty Yuen So Siu-mai, outgoing chair of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, said on Friday that the city’s tourism sector should press on with measures to lure tourists.

“We do not disagree that Hong Kong is going through a rough patch in the tourism industry,” Yuen said. “We all have to work hard, but the mainland is giving us supportive policies.”

She raised the recent expansion of the individual visitor scheme, which allows residents of certain cities across the border to come to Hong Kong on a solo basis, to Xian and Qingdao.

Yuen added the city also needed to push ahead with efforts to have the duty-free shopping allowance raised for mainland visitors, which is currently capped at 5,000 yuan (US$692).

“We also have to expand our markets and not be overreliant on just the mainland market, including new countries in Asean and the Middle East.”