Are cheap 68 yuan tours for mainland visitors to Hong Kong good for the economy?
Travel booking platform Fliggy shows one-day tour for a group of 60 has dropped to between 35.9 yuan and 39.9 yuan per person
Low-budget tours to Hong Kong costing as little as 68 yuan (US$9.35) have been a popular option among mainland Chinese visitors over the Labour Day “golden week” holiday, sparking concerns about how such minimal spending by tourists in the city benefits the local economy.
A search by the Post on the country’s leading online travel booking platform Fliggy found that a one-day tour to Hong Kong for a group of 60 on May 6 further dropped to between 35.9 yuan and 39.9 yuan per person, including lunch.
The budget tours, which require participants to apply for their own travel visas, mainly target those visiting Hong Kong from Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Guangzhou. They cover eight major attractions in a single day.
Tourists are asked to assemble at designated places at 8am, before they are taken to the Wong Tai Sin Temple, the West Kowloon Cultural District’s Art Park and the area outside the Hong Kong Palace Museum in the morning.
After the morning visits, tourists have lunch at a restaurant selected by the tour guides.
The afternoon itinerary covers Golden Bauhinia Square, the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre and The Peak, before tour participants are taken on a ferry from Wan Chai to Tsim Sha Tsui, where they visit the Avenue of the Stars and can take in the views of Victoria Harbour.