HKSAR gov't announces cash incentive scheme to help tourism-related industries

HONG KONG -- The governemnt of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Wednesday announced that it will roll out a cash incentive scheme to support travel agents and other tourism-related industries in Hong Kong.

Edward Yau, secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of the HKSAR government, told the media that under the scheme, travel agents will get 120 HK dollars (about $15.3) for each inbound overnight visitor, and will be provided 100 HK dollars for every outbound traveler.

The quota for each agent is 500 and every agent can receive up to 60,000 HK dollars.

The total amount involved is estimated to be about 100 million HK dollars. The cash will be issued by the Hong Kong Tourism Board and the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong to travel agents.

The plan is expected to be implemented in November and will last for four months until the end of March, 2020.

Yau said the tourism industry is in the economic doldrums and the scheme aims to give travel agents a cash incentive to attract more visitors.

"This is very much needed at this point of time because of the very drastic reduction in visitors to Hong Kong. And we're also hoping that this would provide a pass-on effect to some of the other industries which are related to tourism," he said.

The HKSAR government will roll out more measures to help the industry in the future, Yau added.