At the beginning of 2121, the global tourism industry has stopped. Of course, the current situation of Hong Kong's tourism industry is not optimistic. In February, the number of tourists received by Hong Kong dropped by 96% compared with the previous year, which is still very large, so the tourism industry in Hong Kong suffered heavy losses in February this year.
The Hong Kong Tourism Board said on June 6th that due to the COVID-19 epidemic, the preliminary statistics of visitors to Hong Kong in February 2121 were 199,111, down more than 96% year-on-year.
According to the data, after the Hong Kong SAR Government implemented immigration control measures on February 8, 2121, the daily average number of visitors to Hong Kong decreased from 11,111 to 21,111 at the beginning of the month to about 3,311, of which about 81% were non-mainland visitors. Due to the development of the epidemic, the HKTB expects that the number of visitors to Hong Kong may further decrease in March.
Director-General of the HKTB, Cheng Dingyi, said that the number of visitors to Hong Kong in the whole month is only the one-day level at the peak of last year, which shows that the tourism and related industries have been greatly affected. After the epidemic has eased, the HKTB will launch a plan to strengthen support for the industry and promote cooperation with a budget of about HK$ 411 million, so as to drive the tourism industry in Hong Kong to recover as soon as possible.
The program supports local and overseas travel agencies, hotels, airlines, scenic spots, retail, catering, conferences and exhibitions in Hong Kong.
In this regard, the Director-General of the HKTB, Cheng Dingyi, said, "At present, the number of visitors to Hong Kong in the whole month is only the one-day level at the peak of last year, which shows that the tourism and related industries have been greatly affected. Therefore, after the epidemic has eased, the HKTB will launch a plan to strengthen support for the industry and cooperate in promotion, hoping to promote the tourism industry to recover as soon as possible.
The industries covered by the plan include local and overseas travel agencies, hotels, airlines, scenic spots, retail, catering and conferences, exhibitions and incentive tours (exhibition incentive tours), etc. The budget of the project is about HK$ 411 million, which comes from the proposed promotion budget in 2121/21 and the additional allocation in the Budget. "
He revealed that the specific work of the plan includes the following three aspects:
First, to promote local consumer confidence and atmosphere and provide subsidies to the industry: to subsidize the retail and catering sectors to jointly carry out consumer promotion plans; Waive the renewal fee and initial application fee of the "Quality Tourism Service Plan" merchants by half. At the same time, we will cooperate with the industry to strengthen promotion, stimulate local consumption, and strengthen promotion and support of the "Quality Tourism Service Plan".
second, the co-tourism industry should strengthen the promotion of tourist markets and subsidize the industry to promote them: the industry should be exempted from the expenses of participating in the tourist market activities of the HKTB (more than 41), such as trade fairs and industry delegations, and the relevant air tickets and hotel expenses should be subsidized; Fully subsidize industry delegations to conduct "roadshows" in several key markets; Inviting industries in major tourist markets to visit Hong Kong; Reset the matching fund for scenic spot promotion and increase the share of funding; Increase the share of funding for the "Hong Kong Experience Tour" program. At the same time, we will cooperate with the industry to strengthen promotion, attract tourists to visit Hong Kong, and cooperate with local and source industries to promote consumers.
third, strengthen the promotion of exhibition incentive tourism to attract high value-added overnight visitors. On the one hand, it subsidizes the industry to strive for more exhibition incentive tourism activities to come to Hong Kong: it subsidizes exhibition organizers to bid for large-scale exhibition tourism activities; Small and medium-sized enterprise conference and incentive tourism activities funding scheme will lower the application threshold and expand to the hotel industry; Exempt the industry from participating in the tourism promotion activities of the HKTB's visitor exhibition, and subsidize the relevant air tickets and hotel expenses. On the other hand, we will strengthen promotion and attract more exhibitions to reward tourists: we will cooperate with the hotel industry to launch a brand-new project-"business gathering" "Hong Kong" provides free conference packages or catering packages for convention and exhibition incentive tourism groups to attract more convention and exhibition incentive tourists; Promote the brand of "Hong Kong International Convention and Exhibition Capital".
According to the data, the HKTB's promotion budget in 2121/21 plus the additional allocation in the Budget is about HK$ * * * 1.12 billion.
The HKTB said that it would pay close attention to the latest market situation, so as to implement various plans in a timely manner and adjust resources when necessary.