Mainland travel agents are eager to cash in as the limits on Beijing and Shanghai visitors are lifted
Mainland travel agents are scrambling to find hotel and airline discounts to cater for the demand from individual travellers to Hong Kong from Beijing and Shanghai.
Visitors from the two cities can travel to Hong Kong individually from today, rather than as members of tour groups.
Travel industry workers say visitors from the capital will seize the chance to shop without time constraints imposed in the past by tour guides. They will also be free to eat wherever they want, with the gourmet Chinese food available in Hong Kong a big attraction.
Travel agents say Hong Kong attracts visitors from Beijing and Shanghai because it is relatively close geographically and offers a foreign-influenced society while conserving traditional Chinese culture.
The freer access for visitors from the two cities already covers residents in eight Guangdong cities and is designed to improve economic ties between the mainland and Hong Kong.
'This is going to be relatively big, because quite a lot of people will be going to Hong Kong on tours,' said Richard Chen, founder and chief technology officer of an online travel agency in Beijing.
