Hong Kong takes proactive measures to welcome individual visit scheme tourists

HONG KONG, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Starting from Monday, eight more Chinese mainland cities are eligible to issue individual travel endorsements for trips to Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions.

The move was welcomed by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government and the tourism industry, which take proactive measures to receive visitors.

The eight newly added cities include Taiyuan in Shanxi Province, Hohhot in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Harbin in Heilongjiang Province, Lhasa in the Xizang Autonomous Region, Lanzhou in Gansu Province, Xining in Qinghai Province, Yinchuan in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The scheme now covers 59 cities, including all provincial capitals and capital cities of autonomous regions in the Chinese mainland.

Kevin Yeung, secretary for culture, sports and tourism of the HKSAR government, on Monday visited the visitor center of the Hong Kong Tourism Board at the Hong Kong International Airport to ensure that relevant units are well prepared to welcome visitors from the eight cities.

Yeung said that the further expansion of the scheme will attract more high-value-added overnight visitors to Hong Kong. He looks forward to welcoming more visitors from different cities to experience Hong Kong's unique appeal as an international tourism destination.

Recently, the HKSAR government has been actively promoting Hong Kong tourism to relevant cities. Representatives of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Chengdu of the HKSAR government earlier visited Xizang to promote the individual visit scheme at a tourism industry conference.

Yiu Pak-leung, a member of the HKSAR's Legislative Council, said that the newly added cities are located inland, having landscapes quite different from that of Hong Kong, a southern coastal city.

Yiu believed that the world-famous seascape of Victoria Harbor and the integration of Chinese and foreign cultures in Hong Kong are attractive to tourists from these places.

According to the HKSAR government's arrangements, restaurant and shop vouchers will be distributed by the Hong Kong Tourism Board to individual visit scheme visitors from the eight cities, and representatives from the tourism trade of the eight cities and relevant mainland media will be invited to Hong Kong to experience the territory's unique features, including the latest information of tourism products.