The Tourism Strategy Committee, chaired by Secretary for Culture, Sports & Tourism Kevin Yeung, held its second meeting today to discuss changes in travel patterns and visitor habits.

Mr Yeung encouraged the tourism and related trade to understand, respond to and embrace the changes, introduce tourism, catering and retail products with Hong Kong characteristics to attract visitors as well as join hands with the Government to promote Hong Kong's tourism development and boost the economy. 

The participants also exchanged views on the proposed directions of the Development Blueprint for Hong Kong's Tourism Industry 2.0 and how to further promote the theme of "tourism is everywhere in Hong Kong".

Representatives from the Hong Kong Tourism Board briefed committee members about the city's latest tourism performance and the relevant statistics.

The tourism chief said the provisional visitor arrival figure for August this year was close to 4.5 million, representing a year-on-year increase of over 9% and reaching a record high for a single month since the full opening of the borders in February 2023. 

“We are encouraged to note that in the first eight months of this year, more than 29.5 million visitor arrivals were recorded, representing a year-on-year increase of 45%.

“Of them, about 23 million were Mainland visitors and over 6.5 million were non-Mainland visitors, representing year-on-year increase of about 39% and 63% respectively."

He also noted that with the strong recovery in visitor arrivals, the Government will continue to work with different sectors of the community to enhance the competitiveness of Hong Kong's tourism industry and strive to pursue “tourism is everywhere in Hong Kong”.

At the meeting, members expressed their endorsement and support for the Government's continued policy direction of continuing to make good use of Hong Kong's rich tourism resources to actively motivate the trade to develop characteristic tourism products.

The Government also encouraged the trade to seize the business opportunities arising from the central government's gifting of two giant pandas to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the two giant panda cubs born in Hong Kong, exercise creativity and introduce giant panda products with local characteristics to offer a special panda experience to visitors.

Mr Yeung also pointed out that the Government completed 27 consultation sessions with the trade on Blueprint 2.0, met more than 110 trade organisations and received over 1,000 recommendations.

“The Government is now pressing ahead with the formulation of various strategies and initiatives for the Blueprint 2.0 with a view to promoting speedy and quality development of the tourism industry. Our plan is to finalise and publish the contents of the Blueprint 2.0 within this year."

At the meeting, members put forward different suggestions for promoting the theme of "tourism is everywhere in Hong Kong", such as stepping up effort in developing island tourism, green tourism and continuing to make good use of technology to enhance visitor experience.

Mr Yeung also briefed members about the latest updates regarding the gifting and birth of giant pandas, as well as a series of territory-wide publicity and promotional activities being actively arranged by the Government together with Ocean Park and various sectors of the community.

Members offered advice on how to further drive the giant panda popularity across the whole city and grasp the business opportunities thus brought about.

The Tourism Commission briefed the committee about two creative tourism projects - the Sai Kung Hoi Arts Festival and the Design District Hong Kong, which will be launched again in November and December this year respectively.