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Hong Kong tourism stimulus falls short of aviation’s expectations
Travel agencies latest beneficiaries of government handouts.
October 25th 2019
This week the Hong Kong government unveiled a HK$100 million (US$13 million) subsidy package for tourism that targets the city’s many small travel agents. Read More » It was the Special Administrative Region’s (SAR) third stimulus package in the last two months. It also included fuel subsidies for all categories of commercial vehicles - taxis, public buses, trams and ferries – but not airlines.
Hong Kong’s airline industry has been lobbying for support as protests across the SAR continue into their fifth month. Firstly, the Hong Kong Board of Airline Representatives requested assistance. IATA later backed the campaign. In August, Hong Kong announced its first stimulus package and said the government-owned Airport Authority Hong Kong would outline its own incentive amount and methodology at a later date. Nothing has been disclosed to date.
The tourism stimulus provides Hong Kong travel agencies with a $120 incentive per person staying overnight in the SAR and $100 per outbound traveler, capped at 500 tourists per agent. The offer is expected to apply from next month to March 2020. It will be funded by the Hong Kong Tourism Board and travel agency watchdog, the Travel Industry Council.
The city has 1,700 travel agents, said SAR secretary for commerce and economic development, Edward Yau Tang-wah. “Forty countries have given travel advice to citizens visiting Hong Kong, with a few of them issuing alerts,” he said. The focus for financial support seems to be on smaller companies and not large corporations like airlines that can better protect themselves from the downturn.
Civic Party legislator, Jeremy Tam, said the handouts “may only help attract low-priced tour groups to Hong Kong, for instance those who take bus [tours from mainland China],” he said. “The entire policy is a failure and not well thought out.”
Short-haul inbound markets have reported a sharper decrease in visitors to Hong Kong than long-haul visitors. Hong Kong’s outbound market has been weakened, but Hong Kong residents are not included in this program.
