HK Businesses Cater to Mainland Holiday Visitors

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, February 14, 2003

HK Businesses Cater to Mainland Holiday Visitors

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During the Chinese Spring Festival which is drawing to its end on Feb. 15, Hong Kong businesses have made special arrangements to cater to their biggest goods and services buyers -- visitors from the Chinese mainland.

Speaking Mandarin, pricing and dealing with Chinese RMB, staging entertainment with Chinese characteristics, Hong Kong businessmen have tailored their services for the mainlanders for a bigger share of the Spring Festival market.

The huge influx of visitors from China's mainland and their expenditure of more than 5,000 HK dollars per person on average inHong Kong are the reasons behind the measures that Hong Kong businessmen have adopted during the Spring Festival, analysts said.

According to the latest statistics, some 250 thousand mainland tourists visited Hong Kong from Feb. 1 to Feb. 6.

Some of them entered Hong Kong in 3,500 tourist groups while the others came to Hong Kong through self-aided tours or on business visits, a rise of 34 percent, 150 percent and 250 percent,respectively, from the same period last year.

On Feb. 2 alone, the China Travel Service (HK) Ltd. welcomed some 300 tourist groups from the mainland, and the Ocean Park is the hottest attraction with these visitors, said a tourist guide with the travel agency.

Maggie Lee, public affairs officer of the park, noted that, to facilitate the increasing number of mainland visitors, all their in-park announcements and narration include a Putonghua version, and all their front-line staff are required to attend Putonghua courses,

To make the mainland visitors to feel at home during the SpringFestival period, Maggie added, they present a face-changing performance from the Sichuan Opera in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, during which the performer magically changes the mask onhis face simply by shaking his head.

Moreover, the Ocean Park's leading mascot Whiskers, dressed up in traditional Chinese costume, send visitors gifts wrapped up in red envelopes, a traditional way of celebrating the Chinese SpringFestival.

Shopping malls also try their utmost to minimize the obstacles mainland shoppers might find and put up with different kinds of attractions besides sales to lure customers.

Senior Property Manager of Swire Properties Management Limited Elizabeth Kok said that Cityplaza, one of the leading shopping centers in town, put up puppet plays, shadow shows as well as music and dance from a number of China's minority ethnic groups toentertain its customers.

Kok pointed out the Chinese RMB are acceptable at more and moreshops at Cityplaza, and they plan a survey on the visitors from the Chinese mainland with a view to providing better service to these customers.

Some shops in Hong Kong even paste out announcements saying that Chinese RMB yuan has the same purchasing capability as the HKdollar while the official exchange rate stands at one HK dollar equaling to 1.06 Chinese RMB yuan.

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