Although two rounds of funding support were received from the Government during the year, not all business operators and practitioners in the distressed industries were benefited. For this reason, I reflected to the Government on different occasions and hoped that the Government could include more enterprises and employees in the scope of subsidies. I also request the Government to open more temporary positions for unemployed practitioners. During the year, about 170 requests for assistance were received, which mainly related to application for support, reviews of the ESS, supply of quarantine hotels, license renewal, etc.

 

8 September 2021
In the LegCo, I questioned the SCED and suggested the Government to use the budget allocated to the "Travel Agents Incentive Scheme" to support travel agents in view of the suspension of inbound and outbound tour groups.

 

 

12 August 2021
I wrote a letter to the SCED and suggested that the eligibility for the "Special Further Subsidies" of $377 million should be adjusted so that newly licensed travel agents, newly recruited employees, and unemployed employees of closed travel agents can be benefited. In addition, I also recommended the Secretary to expand the support target to self-employed persons who work closely with licensed travel agents in providing travel-related services, operators of tour coaches that cater for overseas and local tourists (especially A01 license), limousines, cruise ships, as well as hotel and guesthouse operators.

 

12 May 2021
Raised questions in the LegCo and urged the Government to give priority to the creation of temporary jobs for unemployed practitioners who have been severely impacted by the epidemic, thereby alleviating their financial burdens.

 

 

 

1 January 2021
I raised a recommendation to the SFH and suggested that priority to vaccinate against the COVID-19 epidemic should be given to frontline personnel who work in tourism-related occupations, e.g. travel agents, hotels, tourist attractions, tour coaches, airlines, etc., in order to strengthen the protection for these groups of employees.

 

 

 

30 December 2020
I recommended the Commissioner for Tourism to extend the "Travel Agents Incentive Scheme" and the "Green Lifestyle Local Tour Incentive Scheme" to the first half of 2021 and relax the application requirements of the two schemes to newly established travel agents.

 

 

14 December 2020
I wrote to the CE and reflected that with the indefinite recovery of the local economy, tourism and related industries, such as travel agents, hotels, guesthouses, airlines, tour coaches, cross-border land and sea transportation, conventions and exhibitions, cruises, tourist attractions, etc., continued to suffer from the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic. In particular, I suggested the CE to consider extending the ESS to cover hard-hit industries.

 

 

2 December 2020
I wrote to the Commissioner for Tourism and suggested him to optimize the $600 million subsidy programme for benefiting more travel agents and practitioners. I also urged the Commissioner to speed up the approval and issuance processes so as to help alleviate the financial burdens faced by many members and practitioners during the Chinese New Year.