Tourism numbers fine but not quite golden

Eunice Lam

Some 625,000 mainland tourists visited Hong Kong during the Labor Day Golden Week which ended on Wednesday, including 453 mainland tours groups of about 13,000 tourists.

Still, the number was around 60 percent of prepandemic levels.

Immigration Department figures from last Saturday to Wednesday showed the proportion of mainland travelers was 37 percent of the overall 1.71 million travelers.

The Travel Industry Authority said it received registrations for 453 group tours during the Golden Week. More than half - or 263 groups - were not shopping tours.

Speaking on radio yesterday, the authority's executive director Annie Fonda said that the police were assigned at tourist hotspots and had not received any complaints during the holidays.

Fonda said she felt sad to see some mainland group tours introducing tourist spots inaccurately, adding: "It's very disappointing to see some frontline workers saying something inappropriate and unprofessional."

Her comments came after local media reported that some mainland tour groups had their four meals at the same Chinese restaurant in To Kwa Wan, while some tour guides said Repulse Bay in Southern District is "only accessible for rich people in the city."

Fonda said restaurants were not under the authority's scope of work, but called on the sector to fulfill their social duty to minimize the impact on communities, or they could risk being regulated in the future - including limiting the number of tourists at restaurants.

Meanwhile, a tour guide unionist said that the guides have to enrich their knowledge of Hong Kong's history and culture as more visitors now look for "in-depth tourism."

Hong Kong Professional Tourist Guides General Union chairwoman Ann Yu Li-hua said: "Many travel agencies have started to organize local in-depth tours during the pandemic, so there is an urgent need for some licensed tour guides and agencies to upgrade their skills to lead these tours.

"Some guides, who mainly served shopping-oriented tours previously, may not have a deep understanding of Hong Kong's history and culture."

Yu added that tour guide training in the past two years focused on newly-opened tourist spots, which saw dozens of participants. But she said a lack of regulation of local eco-tours has hindered tour guides from joining these training sessions.