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Amy Chew

Carrie Lee

HONG KONG legislator Howard Young yesterday called on Taiwan to be more restrained in its ban against group tours to China following the Qiandao Lake tragedy.

  Mr Young, the tourism industry's Legco representative, also urged China to put its house in order regarding issues relating to tourism and safety.

  He said Taiwan's action was bad for Hong Kong.

 ''I hope the Taiwan authorities can be more restrained in their attitude.''   Mr Young's call was made as China Airlines revealed it had received cancellations for more than 2,000 flight tickets to Hong Kong from tour groups in Taiwan after their Government moved to restrict group travel to China.

  The territory's tourism industry will be adversely affected in the short-term.

  But Mr Young admitted there was little Hong Kong could do.

  Last year, Taiwanese were the largest group of visitors to the territory, totalling 1.8 million arrivals or 19.9 per cent of the tourist total. They were also the biggest spenders, splurging a staggering $13.9 billion on shopping, food and hotel accommodation.

  The deputy general manager of the state-owned China Travel Service, Chen Lizhi, called on Taipei to cancel its boycott.

   But Simon Wong, deputy chairman of the Hong Kong Taiwan Tourist Operators' Association, said less than 300,000 Taiwanese visited China for sightseeing last year, adding most of the Taiwanese visitors were on business trips, which are unlikely to be affected.

  Michael Li Hon-shing, executive director of the Federation of Hong Kong Hotel Owners, said the local hotel industry was strong enough to survive the negative impact of the ban.

  The ban would only result in a drop of about five per cent of the hotel occupancy rate, he said.

  W. I. Carr economist Gilbert Choy was optimistic that any negative impact on Hong Kong's tourism as a result of Taiwan's threat would only be short-term.

  He said Taiwanese could still travel into China via tour groups in Hong Kong.

  ''One can even argue that the threats to curb sightseeing tours from Taiwan to China might benefit Hong Kong,'' he said.

   The proposed ban on tourism would have some effect on the local economy.

  Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce public relations manager Alice Yao said: ''Naturally there will be a reduction in transit tourist traffic. The hotels may suffer from this. Restaurants and retail businesses may also feel an impact.''   But economists said the impact would only be minimal as tourism itself did not constitute a significant part of the territory's gross domestic product.



Restraint urged by HK legislator