Chief executive-elect Leung Chun-ying has echoed concerns by Beijing's tourism chief over Hong Kong's ability to accommodate more visitors, dampening hopes of expanding the individual visit scheme.
Leung said in an interview on TVB yesterday that the influx of tourists contributed to inflation of prices in the city. Those crossing from the mainland to the New Territories, where tourists usually shop for goods like formula milk, also 'disrupt the livelihood' of residents there, he said. 'The mainland government made the right decision in not expanding the individual visit scheme over the past five years,' Leung said.
The individual scheme allows 270 million eligible mainland residents from 49 mainland cities to visit Hong Kong multiple times.
The number of mainland tourists to Hong Kong has increased from 8.5 million in 2003, when the scheme started, to 28.1 million in 2011.
Leung's statement reflected the concerns of Shao Qiwei, director of the National Tourism Administration, at a meeting with tourism industry veterans last week, where Shao questioned whether Hong Kong's infrastructure could handle a further jump in numbers.
According to Joseph Tung Yiu-chung, executive director of the Travel Industry Council, Shao said it often took hours for mainlanders to cross the border into Hong Kong and that there were worries that the supply of hotel rooms was inadequate.