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Hong Kong Rolls Out Bold Plan to Appeal to World Vacationers
Tuesday, December 31, 2024
Hong Kong has launched a extremely anticipated tourism blueprint, emphasizing themes like pandas, horse racing, mega-events, and sensible journey initiatives. The up to date technique goals to inject HK$120 billion (US$15.5 billion) into the economic system and create 210,000 jobs inside 5 years.
The blueprint, launched on Monday, outlines 4 growth methods, 16 implementation instructions, 59 motion plans, and 133 measures. These efforts reinforce Hong Kong’s place as a hub for worldwide and multi-destination tourism, highlighting its distinctive mix of Jap and Western cultures.
In his 2023 coverage deal with, emphasised the necessity to replace the 2017 tourism blueprint to align with the post-pandemic panorama. The roadmap introduces actionable plans for brief, medium, and long-term progress, addressing main adjustments skilled throughout the previous three years.
Beijing’s prime consultant for Hong Kong affairs, has repeatedly recognized tourism as a cornerstone of the town’s financial revival. Innovation and expertise play a central position within the up to date plan, together with sensible check-in kiosks on the airport, e-channel providers for immigration, digital fee programs, and augmented actuality experiences at points of interest.
Two grownup large pandas, An An and Ke Ke, gifted to Hong Kong by Beijing, arrived in September as a part of Beijing’s key initiatives to assist the town’s tourism business. Different initiatives embody increasing the person traveler scheme for choose mainland residents, introducing in a single day sleeper trains, rising duty-free allowances, and reviving multiple-entry visas for Shenzhen locals.
The federal government can be concentrating on new markets, significantly the Center East and ASEAN nations. Efforts embody increasing Arabic-language info on the airport, rising halal-friendly hospitality and eating choices, and inspiring taxi drivers to offer service info in Arabic.
Dane Cheng Ting-yat, government director of the Tourism Board, famous that whereas vacationer arrivals for 2024 could barely miss the forecast of 46 million attributable to challenges like a powerful foreign money and restricted flight capability restoration, there was important progress.
Within the first ten months of 2024, vacationer arrivals rose 37% year-on-year to 36.7 million, together with 28.4 million guests from mainland China, a 33% improve. Non-mainland guests grew by 54% to eight.3 million, accounting for 23% of whole arrivals.
Well-liked points of interest similar to Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, the West Kowloon Cultural District, Ocean Park, the Hong Kong Remark Wheel, and Ngong Ping 360 cable automobile proceed to captivate guests.
Journey Trade Council chairman Tommy Tam Kwong-shun lauded the blueprint for setting a transparent path for long-term progress, positioning Hong Kong as a dynamic and aggressive world tourism vacation spot.