A June 4 warning by the mainland's top tourism regulator did not ask mainlanders not to go to Hong Kong but only alerted them to watch out for cheap tours and to reject forced shopping, an official with the China National Tourism Administration said. 'The warning was issued after a tourist from Hunan province, Chen Youming, died during a shopping dispute in Hong Kong. It was only about this incident. It was completely different from warnings against Sars or swine flu ... It did not ask tourists not to go to Hong Kong,' the director of the Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan section of the CNTA, Man Hongwei, said at a meeting to promote 'Quality & Honest Hong Kong Tours' in Beijing. The promotion was intended to restore the confidence of mainland tourists, he said. The CNTA would communicate with its Hong Kong counterparts when they visited Beijing in the near future. 'I believe these one or two incidents won't harm Hong Kong's tourism market,' Man said. Hong Kong Tourism Board chairman James Tien Pei-chun said: 'The unpleasant incident in June left mainlanders with a negative impression about Hong Kong. It's most important to restore the confidence of tourists.' Many tourists had expressed fears about forced shopping in Hong Kong after Chen, a former member of the national table tennis team, died of a heart attack on May 22, and domestic media reported that the cause was being coerced to shop in Hong Kong. A video of a tour guide in Hong Kong shouting at mainland tourists on a shuttle bus, which circulated on the internet earlier this month, further eroded confidence. The Hong Kong Tourism Commission and the Hong Kong Travel Industry Council decided last month to crack down on unscrupulous sales practices. With the cartoon pig McDull as the marketing ambassador for the campaign, 23 travel agencies and nine cities joined up, bringing the total to 78 agencies in 27 cities who pledged to offer 'three no' services - no forced shopping, no extra fees [for special groups such as children and the elderly] and no 'optional' items with additional charges. More than 10 million mainland tourists visited Hong Kong in the first half of this year, up by 23 per cent.