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The Tourism Commission (TC) joined hands with various government departments and the tourism industry in drawing up measures to fully prepare for the possible surge of visitors from the Mainland during the National Day Golden Week period. These measures aim at enhancing the flow of visitors at various boundary control points, increasing the capacity of transportation facilities, and stepping up promotion and information dissemination to visitors on consumer protection.
Ms Eva Cheng, Commissioner for Tourism, said, "We are ready to meet the challenge of another record-breaking Golden Week holiday. The current indications are that about 500,000 visitors may arrive from the Mainland over the 10-day period. The National Day Golden Week has been the traditional peak travel period for Mainland tourists and Hong Kong has always been a popular destination. The coming Golden Week period starts and ends with a weekend, and with the newly opened Hong Kong Disneyland, we expect that the number of Mainland visitors will increase by about 10% as compared with last year. We estimate that more than half of them will be Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) visitors and slightly more than 10% will come in tour groups.¡¨
¡§We note that with wider travel experience, the travel pattern of Mainland visitors, in particular those from the Guangdong province, has been changing. They visit Hong Kong more frequently and their visits have spread out more evenly round the year. Some of them choose to visit Hong Kong in weekdays to enjoy the benefit of lower group tour fees or accommodation cost and a more relaxed environment for travelling. The growth of visitor arrivals by 10% over the preceding National Day Golden Week has already proven that Hong Kong continued to be an attractive destination to Mainland visitors.¡¨ Ms Cheng added.
The Tourism Commission encourages Mainland tourists who are planning to visit Hong Kong during the Golden Week period to use the Lo Wu Boundary Control Point, which has a larger handling capacity, to enter and leave Hong Kong. They should also consider adjusting their journey to avoid crossing the boundary at morning and evening peak hours.
The Government will make the best possible preparations to receive visitors. The measures adopted for the previous Golden Weeks were proven effective and demonstrated the capacity of Hong Kong in receiving large volume of visitors. Similar measures will continue to be adopted and the departments will flexibly deploy resources according to the situation. The Tourism Commission reminds the tourism-related sectors, in particular the retailers and catering sectors who are on the frontline, to provide high quality and value-for-money services to our mainland visitors. The Hong Kong Tourism Board and the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong will also continue implement measures in enhancing consumer protection for visitors.
¡§As there are a number of tourism facilities, including new attractions and new hotels, to be completed and open soon, the overall tourism performance and development is expected to be optimistic. According to the IVS visitor survey we have recently conducted in Guangdong province, more than half of the respondents are interested to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland. For those who intend to visit the Disneyland, 90.7% will stay overnight; their estimated average spending is about 18% more than those not intend to visit Disneyland; and 40% of these visitors will bring along at least one child aged under 16 when travelling to Hong Kong. These indicate that Hong Kong has been developing as a family destination. The Hong Kong Hotels Association earlier announced that the estimated hotel occupancy rate during the Golden Week period would be about 84%, similar to last year¡¦s occupancy rate. The number of hotel rooms has increased by about 10% since last year, and thus represents a stable growth in the demand of hotel rooms. ¡¨ Ms Cheng concluded.
The measures cover the following areas ¡V
(1)Arrangements for immigration clearance at Boundary Control Points;
(2)Arrangement of facilities;
(3)Information dissemination;
(4)Visitors¡¦ information service;
(5)Consumer protection;
(6)Protection of visitors¡¦ health
(7)Coordination with Guangdong Province
Details of the Golden Week measures are at Annex.
Ends/Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Issued at HKT 20:14
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