Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said on February 24 that he would discuss with the central government ways to reduce the number of mainland tourists to Hong Kong in the Two Sessions meetings in Beijing, which kick off on Tuesday.
Leung said the HKSAR government realizes the influx of mainland tourists has affected the lives of Hongkongers in some districts. He also stressed that there would be no new cities added to the current list of 49 mainland cities included in the individual visit scheme because Hong Kong has a limited capacity to host mainland tourists.
The individual visit scheme was introduced in 2003 to allow mainlanders to travel to Hong Kong and Macao on an individual basis instead of only on group tours. The main purpose of the scheme was to boost Hong Kong's economy after the SARS outbreak. However, over the past years the influx of mainland visitors has gradually become a source of conflict between mainlanders and Hongkongers.
The number of mainland tourists going to Hong Kong dropped a slight 0.3 percent over the first three days of the Chinese New Year holidays, the first decrease in the same period in about 20 years. Recent protests targeting mainland visitors may be a reason for this.
Mainland tourists come to Hong Kong as group tourists, individual travelers and under multiple-entry permits. About 60 percent of mainland tourists travel to Hong Kong with multiple-entry permits, and can enter an unlimited number of times in a year.
This group of mainland travelers is the major source of nuisance for local people because they pay many one-day shopping visits. Some of these people are parallel goods traders, which means they buy products in Hong Kong and sell them in the mainland.
The discussion by Leung with the central government is welcome news for the people of Hong Kong. The influx of mainland tourists, especially those who come under multiple-entry permits, has indeed affected the livelihood of Hong Kong residents. There have been some anti-mainland shopper protests over the past two weeks in Hong Kong.
There have also been calls to limit the number of mainland tourists to Hong Kong in recent years, because some have blamed the influx of mainland travelers for driving up the prices of daily necessities on the islands. During last year's Two Sessions, Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress, brought up the issue of reviewing the individual visit scheme, but there has been not much progress made since.
The time is right for the HKSAR and the central government to re-open discussions and solve problems brought by mainland travelers at the policy level. In light of the recent protests, we cannot exclude the possibility that some people in Hong Kong are taking advantage of people's discontent to their own agenda.
While reviewing the individual visit scheme, both Hong Kong and the mainland have to consider how to balance economic growth and people's livelihoods. Also, any new measures have to be realistic and reasonable. It is unfair to blame mainland visitors for all the problems in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong is a free economy and it is ridiculous to set a limit on how many things a mainland tourist can buy in Hong Kong, whether they are parallel goods traders or not. The proposal by Michael Tien Puk-sun, a Hong Kong deputy to the National People's Congress, to change the limit for multiple-entry permits from unlimited to 30 to 40 times a year, is a realistic approach.
But regardless of how the individual visit scheme will be changed, Hong Kong should make long-term plans about how to increase tourist capacity for both mainland and overseas tourists.
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