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Published on : Tuesday, November 27, 2018
The tourism authority of Guangzhou sent an “urgent notice” to travel agencies in the mainland Chinese city instructing them to avoid sending tour groups to Hong Kong via the new cross-border bridge during weekends.
The notice, issued by the Tourism Administration of Guangzhou Municipality and effective immediately, also pledged a crackdown on unauthorised agents. The move came after residents of Tung Chung on Lantau Island complained of being inundated by mainland visitors after the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge last month. Their resentment over large crowds descending on their usually quiet neighbourhood was compounded by allegations about illegal tour operators exploiting the convenience of the new bridge.
The increase of visitors saw long queues at bus stops and shops largely emptied of goods, triggering protests by localist activists and inflaming anti-mainland sentiment over the disruption to residents’ daily life. Some tour guides were also accused of flouting employment laws that prevent mainlanders from working in the city.
In Thursday’s notice, the Guangzhou tourism authority informed travel agencies that “from now on” they would have to “reasonably arrange” one-day tours via the bridge, and should encourage visitors to do more “two-day or longer” tours.
In Hong Kong, a spokesman for the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau on Thursday thanked the mainland side for “offering assistance”.
The spokesman said Hong Kong’s Tourism Commission raised the issue with the Guangdong provincial department of culture and tourism early this month. “The department took it very seriously and has since instructed local tourism authorities to step up regulatory work,” he added.
Hong Kong lawmaker Yiu Si-wing, who represents the tourism sector, welcomed the move as the first concrete step taken by authorities from across the border to address the city’s concerns about overcrowding.
Yiu said he believed the mainland side was sincere about resolving the issue with Hong Kong and hoped the local government would stay on top of the problem through closer contact with authorities across the border.But localist activist Roy Tam Hoi-pong, of the NeoDemocrats, was unimpressed.
Hong Kong officials have said they are aware of the arrival of visitors and have raised it with their mainland counterparts.
The Commerce minister Edward Yau Tang-wah said this week that the number of registered tour groups visiting Hong Kong via the bridge had jumped from about 70 in the first week, to more than 700 in the past week.