The move comes with the opening of major transportation links, which may entice visitors to stay for a fourth or fifth day as more tourist spots lie within close reach, Peter Lam Kin-ngok, chairman of Hong Kong Tourism Board said.
Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong province are expected to cast aside decades of competing for tourists and work together to attract long visitor stays with packages to extend stays from three to five days in the region.
The move comes with the opening of major transportation links, which may entice visitors to stay for a fourth or fifth day as more tourist spots lie within close reach, Peter Lam Kin-ngok, chairman of Hong Kong Tourism Board said.
Within the last two months, the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link and the 55km cross-border Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge have opened, providing easy links in the region.
To grow tourists to the region, Lam called for tour agents to design itineraries that take in multiple destinations in the “Greater Bay Area”, an integrated innovation and technology hub uniting 11 southern Chinese cities and intended to rival Silicon Valley.
The project could potentially bring more Japanese visitors to Hong Kong. Gianna Hsu, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Japanese Tour Operators Association expects this could “generate 5% growth in the number of Hong Kong next year”.
Lam, speaking during a four-day trade show in Tokyo, said the city was aiming to boost its numbers of Japanese tourists and to serve as a base for increased tourism in the region.
The SAR has seen a 9.5% jump in tourism arrivals in the first 10 months this year, drawing 45.68 million–with three-quarters of whom are from the mainland. Nearly 2% of the total comprised Japanese nationals.
The tourism board expects arrivals to grow by 3.6% to about 60 million this year.
Tourism Board executive director Anthony Lau Chun-hon said the Greater Bay Area’s tourism opportunities would throw a lifeline to Hong Kong’s inbound tour agents, who are struggling to reinvent themselves as 93% of inbound tourists travel independently.
Guangzhou Travel Services Association president Li Xieju welcomed the plan, which he said could rival similar cooperation between Southeast Asian countries.
“Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong used to compete with each other,” he said. “Now is the best time to join together and entice overseas travellers away from other regional blocs such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.”
Alex Ip, manager of tour services firm Multinational Travel Group in Macau, said the casino city wanted to leverage Hong Kong’s pool of international travellers for more growth beyond relying on the gambling industry.