CHINA'S austerity drive is unlikely to affect the number of business people travelling into the country, according to the Hong Kong Association of Travel Agents (HATA).
''As there are currently insufficient flight seats to meet the large demand from business travellers, any drop in numbers wanting to travel to China will not affect the total numbers arriving there as the vacated seats will be taken by the long queue,'' said HATA chairman Aloysius Lee, who is also the managing director of Morning Star Travel.
Because demand for seats exceeds supply, air tickets are costly. Mr Lee cautioned that China was beginning to price itself out of the market for tour packages.
''The air fare comprises 60 per cent of the price component in a tour package to China. As a result, travel agents don't have much to play around with, meaning they are limited in coming up with a creative and interesting package for the traveller,'' he said.
''There are other destinations like Korea, Bangkok, Singapore and others which are cheaper and the packages can be sold at more attractive prices.'' Mr Lee said that in tourism, a country had to look out for its competitors.
''While you can sell a good destination at a high price, you always have to look out for the competitor.