Hong Kong will woo more tourists through relaxed entry requirements and diverse travel packages, while capitalizing on hosting the National Games next year to develop itself into a hub for mega sports events, the city’s top official said.
In his annual policy address delivered on Wednesday, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced a number of initiatives to bolster the tourism industry, including proposing to the central government the resumption of the “multiple-entry” Individual Visit Endorsements for Shenzhen residents.
Multiple-entry Individual Visit Endorsements were introduced by the central government in 2009 to facilitate exchanges between the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Shenzhen residents. It allowed Shenzhen residents to visit the SAR an unlimited number of times a year, but was replaced with the "one trip per week" endorsements in 2015 due to worries about Hong Kong’s reception capacity.
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Hong Kong has also recommended that the “one trip per week” endorsements, now exclusively for Shenzhen residents, be expanded to more Chinese mainland cities to entice visitors, Lee said, adding that the central authorities are proactively considering the proposals.
Effective from Wednesday, Hong Kong has relaxed its requirements for multiple-entry visas for travelers from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, whether for business or tourism, while extending the validity period of visas from two years to three years, Lee said, adding that visa applications submitted by tourist groups from those countries will be processed faster.
The optimizations also apply to Vietnamese visitors, whose visa requirements were relaxed last year.
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Also from Wednesday, the city will no longer require visitors to fill out arrival and departure cards at border checkpoints to boost efficiency, Lee said.
To boost local tourism’s appeal, the chief executive said the government will release the Development Blueprint for Hong Kong's Tourism Industry 2.0 later this year, which will include new approaches to developing more itineraries with local natural and cultural characteristics, highlighting unique tourist products such as giant pandas and horse racing, and improving the service quality in the tourism industry.
The city will also proactively develop tourism resources from Southeast Asia and the Middle East by offering more multilingual information as well as more restaurants and facilities catering to religious needs, such as Halal eateries, said Lee.
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Meanwhile, Hong Kong plans to tout itself as a hub for international sporting events as the city will jointly host the 15th National Games with Macao SAR and Guangdong province next year.
Lee said Hong Kong will make full use of the Kai Tak Sports Park — a main venue for the National Games that is expected to be completed by the end of this year — and other existing venues to host large-scale sports events, allowing more Hong Kong athletes to shine at home.
Other initiatives include allocating greater resources to train athletes and coaches, developing sports technology and medicine, reforming the governance of sports associations and building new sports facilities.
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A government source said the authorities will construct sports venues equipped for fencing training and competitions in To Kwa Wan in the short term, and will include physical education in the primary school internal assessments starting from the 2026/2027 academic year.
From next year, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department will fund more local sports associations to rent facilities in other cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, particularly for events that lack government-subsidized venues like ice hockey, the source added.
In his Policy Address, Lee said that the government is committed to strengthening Hong Kong's role as an international cultural exchange hub, and that the Blueprint for Arts and Culture and Creative Industries Development will be published this year to further foster the development of the cultural industry.
