Clear the Air says:
increased tourism benefits tygoons most and brings with it increased pollution levels, residents’ increased discomfort, stupid uncontrolled rentals and increased cost of living, shortage of daily necessities + profiteering + increased energy requirements adding to our already high pollution load.
Currently Hong Kong revealed it is asking PRC Govt to stem the flow of daily visitors from Shenzhen
This is expected to have little immediate effect and a decrease of 4.6m Shenzhen visitors after one year.
CTA says the Mainland Govt is at fault for failing to ensure the availability of genuine products in its shops and corrupt Customs officers allowing the products to enter PRC daily without duty or VAT payments – They need a separate ‘Goods to Declare Red channel’ with appropriate search and duty payment delays to stem the flow of parallel trading mule ‘ants’.
The Individual Visit Scheme started at HKG’s request during the SARS epidemic in 2003, which caused a major tourism slump Leader Tung Kin Wah did not ask the Mainland that it should end after SARS disappeared
In 2002 HKG had 6.8m Mainland visitors
In 2003 HKG tourist total was 15.54m of which 8.5m were Mainlanders
In 2014 HKG had 60.84m tourists of which 47.25m were Mainlanders
By Comparison tourist arrivals here in 2014 : Ex Taiwan 2.03m, Ex USA 1.13m
Our current tiny infrastructure was not built to handle this continuing increase in visitor load whilst already being surrounded on 3 sides by highly polluting shipping and no Emissions Control Area in place, overbuilt high rises shoulder to shoulder creating urban canyons to trap airborne and roadside pollutants without any dispersing windflow, coal being used to generate power for CLP to sell 23% of its annual total generation basket back into PRD and old buses ending up shoulder to shoulder in congested areas instead of having electric hybrid shuttles on Nathan Rd, Causeway Bay, Central which should be designated ‘Clean Air Zones’! Whatever happened to Ministerial Accountability ? well, the Buck is on the denial roundabout.
DoDo Govt Minister for Commerce and Economic Development Greg So predicted HKG visitors would eventually reach 100m within the decade
By comparison in the massive land mass area of the USA, they received 74.7m visitors in 2014
UK tourist in 2013 – 35 million http://www.tourismalliance.com/downloads/TA_365_390.pdf
In summary:
Hong Kong landmass 426 square miles /1,104 km2 2014 visitors 60.8m = 55,072 visitors per km2
USA landmass 3.8 million square miles / 9,857,306 km² 2014 visitors 74.7m = 7.58 visitors per km2
UK landmass 94,060 sq miles /243,610 km2 2013 visitors 35m = 144 visitors per km2
From 2003 SARS to 2014 Locust Xenophobia:
www.legco.gov.hk/research-publications/english/1314rb06-individual-visit-scheme-20140507-e.pdf
Timeline:
2002- 6.8m ex PRC visit HKG
2003- June SARS hits HKG- Tourism slump leads to IVS implementation at HKG request- Total visitors 15.54m / 8.5m mainlanders
Individual visit scheme (IVS) starts for Beijing, Shanghai, Dongguan, Foshan, Guangzhou, Huizhou, Jiangmen, Shenzhen, Zhongshan
IVS extended in 21 Guangdong cities, & 9 cities in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, & Fujian July 2004
667,000 IVS arrivals
2007- IVS extended to 49 mainland cities
Tourism Board CEO ex PMI nicotine pusher Anthony Lau Chun-hon starts work
2009- Shenzhen introduces multiple-entry permit scheme for permanent residents
IVS 11m mainlanders of whom > 1.4m use multiple-entry permits (MEPs)
2014- Of 60.84m visitors, 47,25m are ex PRC
30m mainlanders IVS, 14.9m use MEPs- Each averages 9.1 visits per year
Partnernet: Total in 2014
Comparison tourist arrivals here
Ex Taiwan 2.03m
Ex USA 1.13m
http://partnernet.hktb.com/en/research_statistics/latest_statistics/index.html
