Golden week visitors add insurance to the shopping list
Golden week tourists add insurance to the shopping list, skirting a ban on direct sales by HK agents across the border, but sector is hungry for more
Besides gold jewellery, baby milk powder, cosmetic products and luxury flats, it seems life insurance policies are now on the shopping list of cashed-up mainland tourists when they visit Hong Kong for the golden week holiday.
Insurance legislator Chan Kin-por said premiums paid by mainland customers represented 12.8 per cent of total new life insurance policy sales in Hong Kong last year, up from 9 per cent in 2011 and only 4 per cent before that.
"Many mainlanders have put life insurance policies on their shopping list, along with cosmetic products, gold jewellery and baby milk, when they travel to Hong Kong," Chan said. "Mainland customers are now the major driving force behind the growth in Hong Kong life insurance sales.
"Many top sales agents in Hong Kong are migrants from the mainland who sell policies to their mainland friends travelling to Hong Kong."
Mainland regulations ban Hong Kong insurance agents from selling or approaching clients on the mainland, but mainlanders are allowed to buy insurance policies here.
"Many insurance companies are targeting mainland customers and the golden week holiday is an important sales period," Chan said.