Public want controls on mainland visitors: poll
Research reveals local fears amid concern that government's projections are too low
Almost two-thirds of Hong Kong people want controls on the influx of individual mainland visitors, a university survey shows.
Results of the poll by the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at Chinese University were released as lawmakers questioned whether a government projection that visitor arrivals would reach 70 million in 2017 and 100 million in 2023 was an underestimate.
Some 64 per cent of the poll's 880 respondents agreed that the multiple-entry permit scheme for Shenzhen permanent residents should be scrapped.
About 12 million Shenzhen residents visited Hong Kong last year, up from 1.47 million in 2009 when the scheme was introduced.
More than three in five participants supported a quota for travellers under the Individual Visit Scheme that allows residents of 49 mainland cities to visit Hong Kong without a tour group.
More than two-fifths saw the scheme as beneficial, while 29 per cent saw it as detrimental.
Despite the benefits, a majority of interviewees thought that visitor numbers had exceeded the city's capacity, and that tourists brought inconvenience to their daily lives.