Expanded Hong Kong solo travel scheme will bring extra 300,000 tourists, up to HK$1.5 billion: John Lee

Visitors from eight mainland Chinese cities added to scheme are high spenders, chief executive says

Government will distribute HK$200 vouchers to these tourists, who can start applying to visit Hong Kong from May 27

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New visitors from eight mainland Chinese cities added to travel scheme are “high spenders”, said Hong Kong’s chief executive. Photo: Jelly Tse

Published: 4:53pm, 14 May 2024Updated: 9:55pm, 14 May 2024

The expansion of mainland China’s solo traveller scheme is expected to bring about 300,000 extra visitors to Hong Kong and generate up to HK$1.5 billion (US$192 million) in additional revenue each year, the city’s leader has said.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said on Tuesday that visitors from the eight newly added cities would be high spenders and help boost the economy.

Lee also revealed that airlines had plans to increase services to some of the cities and the Tourism Board would also distribute HK$200 vouchers to travellers from the eight places added to the Individual Visit Scheme.

Lee told the media before his weekly meeting with the Executive Council that the mainland cities, all provincial and regional capitals with large populations and rapid economic growth, “were high-consumption cluster cities”.

“The newly added eight cities under the Individual Visit Scheme are estimated to bring about 300,000 tourists to Hong Kong every year, as well as around HK$1.2 billion to HK$1.5 billion in spending. This amounts to an added economic value of about HK$700 million to HK$900 million,” he said.

The eight cities are Taiyuan in Shanxi; Hohhot in Inner Mongolia; Harbin in Heilongjiang; Lhasa in Tibet; Lanzhou in Gansu; Xining in Qinghai; Yinchuan in Ningxia; and Urumqi in Xinjiang.