MR YIU SI-WING (in Cantonese): President, the Central Government announced the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area ("the Plan") in February this year. A section in Chapter eight is given the specific heading "Building a Bay Area for Leisure", and it discusses the planning for tourism development. Speaking of the positioning of Hong Kong's tourism industry, the plan is to "leverage the characteristic advantages of the Greater Bay Area and Hong Kong's status as an international transportation centre … [t]o support Hong Kong in developing into an international tourism hub and a core demonstration zone for multi-destination tourism".

The Central Authorities support Hong Kong's development into an international tourism hub because the sea, land and air transport networks in Hong Kong are the most comprehensive among the 11 cities. The Hong Kong International Airport handled over 70 million passenger trips last year. Due to extensive flight routes and reasonable airfares, Hong Kong is not only a travel destination among overseas visitors but also the preferred transit point for tourists travelling between various places and the Mainland. With the successive completion and commissioning of various cross-boundary infrastructure facilities, Hong Kong's edge in providing transport connection with the Mainland (especially the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area ("the Greater Bay Area")) has become more obvious compared to various cities. We have the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and the Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point in the west and east of the city respectively. After the commissioning of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link, a five-hour journey can already cover various provinces and cities with over 300 million people. Speaking of sea transport, we have a world-class cruise terminal, along with various sea routes bound for the Greater Bay Area cities. As the public transport network of Hong Kong is comprehensive, and a one-hour journey can already cover most regions, it is regarded by visitors as a city with the most convenient transport network.

At the same time, the Central Authorities' positioning of Hong Kong as a core demonstration zone for multi-destination tourism in the tourism planning for the Greater Bay Area is also quite reasonable. Hong Kong is a world-renowned travel city, and it is also the city that has received the greatest number of visitors. Last year, Hong Kong recorded as much as 65 million visitor arrivals, 29 million of which were constituted by overnight visitors. According to a survey conducted by a global market research company called Euromonitor International in 2018, Hong Kong remained in the top position for eight consecutive years in the ranking of the most popular cities worldwide among tourists. This shows that Hong Kong's tourism industry has won global acclaim.

Actually, the development of multi-destination tourism is favourable to visitors and the three places of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao because multi-destination tourism can enable tourists to visit various cities during a single journey and in turn enrich their travel experience. And certainly, this is also beneficial to the economic development of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. Tourism industry is an important pillar industry in the Greater Bay Area. According to the statistics of the World Tourism Organization, the indirect contribution of the tourism industry to Hong Kong's Gross Domestic Product ("GDP") accounted for as much as 21.8% of the total in 2017. The industry facilitated the employment of 760 000 people, and this figure represented 19.1% of our total employment population. In the case of Macao, the rate of GDP contribution of its tourism industry (including the gaming industry) was 43.1%. And, according to the statistics of tourism departments in the Guangdong Province for the same year, the tourism revenue of the whole province amounted to as much as RMB1,200 billion and ranked first in the country. Its total GDP contribution amounted to 15.1% of the total, and its employment contribution rate was 19.5%. The development of the tourism industry as a key industry in the Greater Bay Area can directly help to drive its economic development and facilitate employment.

The tourism industry is one with competitive edge in the Greater Bay Area. But the growth of overseas visitors to the region was just so-so over the past five years, without any big surprise. The average annual growth rate of foreign overnight visitors to the Guangdong Province was only 3%, whereas the rate of Hong Kong merely stood at 1.8%. Only Macao registered a more satisfactory growth, and it recorded a growth rate of 6.7% last year. At present, Hong Kong and Macao rely on the Mainland market as the major visitor source. In the case of the Guangdong Province, it depends on Hong Kong and Macao as the major visitor source. When it comes to overseas visitors, there remains much room for improvement. In recent years, the Governments of the three places have tried to open up overseas markets through the development of multi-destination tourism. But the result has just been so-so. The main reasons are as follows.

First, the respective promotion and publicity focuses of the three places are self-oriented, and they vary in the resource allocation strategy and also the degree of importance for developing multi-destination tourism. Even with cooperation, they are still unable to achieve full synergy.

Second, the 144-hour visa policy on tour groups introduced by the Mainland has failed to attain the desired effects. At present, overseas visitors entering the Guangdong Province in tour groups can enjoy visa exemption for 144 hours. But the policy is lacking in stability, in the sense that it may be suspended from time to time without any explanation on the reason. As a result, when promoting multi-destination tourism products, overseas and local travel agencies may be worried and concerned that visitors in such tour groups may file complaints or claims. This has greatly dampened the enthusiasm of travel agencies in developing and promoting multi-destination tourism products.

Third, the absence of priority clearance arrangements at various boundary control points has come to adversely affect visitors' experience. Like other visitors, overseas tour groups with multi-destination itineraries must queue up at boundary control points of the three places for clearance. During peak periods of entry and exit movements, they may have to wait for prolonged periods. Sometimes, they may even have to wait for one or two hours. This is an extremely bad experience for overseas visitors and may affect their comments.

President, with substantial tourism resources, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao can achieve mutual complementarity and have all the necessary conditions for attracting more overseas visitors. For instance, Hong Kong is a renowned "shoppers' paradise" featuring the Western and Chinese cultures and a metropolitan cityscape, along with two theme parks called the Disneyland and Ocean Park. In the case of Macao, it is characterized by its gaming industry and distinctive Portuguese-style architecture. And, the nine cities in the Guangdong Province are marked by their unique Lingnan culture, cuisine and also massive natural and man-made scenic spots.

Focusing on the existing tourism resources in the Greater Bay Area and also the previous problems with the promotion of multi-destination tourism, I wish to put forth several recommendations as follows.

My first recommendation is to include the promotion of tourism development in the Greater Bay Area as a regular task in the portfolio of the Steering Committee for the Development of the Greater Bay Area due to be set up, join hands with Macao and the Guangdong Province to comprehensively collate tourism resources in the Greater Bay Area and associated problems, clearly define the positioning of the tourism industry in the Greater Bay Area based on the Plan, and set a target for increasing the number of overseas visitors and an implementation timetable, so that the relevant tasks can be taken forward step by step through due planning.

My second recommendation is to improve the 144-hour visa arrangement in the Guangdong Province and set up priority clearance channels. As the notification mechanism for the 144-hour visa exemption is not standardized at present, the Governments of the three places should jointly raise improvement proposals with the relevant departments on institutionalizing the notification mechanism. Most desirably, various boundary control points should be equipped with priority clearance channels specifically for overseas visitors in tour groups, so as to enhance their travel experience.

Third, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao may cooperate with one another in setting up a dedicated fund for conducting joint promotion in various overseas markets; jointly set up a tourism promotion platform while also conducting market analysis and sales promotion; jointly formulate policies to support the tourism industry in the Greater Bay Area in developing products and conducting overseas promotion and publicity; offer subsidies to travel agencies in the Greater Bay Area for participating in overseas promotion and site visits, and provide more incentives for travel agencies embarking on the development of new products for multi-destination tourism.

My fourth recommendation concerns the effective use of technology for promoting smart tourism, including the collection and analysis of big data for understanding the travel preferences and consumption habits of overseas and Mainland visitors and in turn providing data support for tourism planning and market promotion, and also expanding the application of electronic payment systems to encourage shops to accept popular electronic payment tools, so as to facilitate visitors' spending in Hong Kong.

President, as long as we can properly take forward the development planning for the Greater Bay Area, we will have unlimited opportunities. If the three places can achieve mutual complementarity through the coordination of resource deployment, they can certainly increase their tourism appeal and encourage more tourism practitioners to promote multi-destination tourism products. I hope the governments of the three places can examine all this in great detail. With its substantial experience in tourism promotion, Hong Kong can actually play a greater part.

President, I so submit.