The first batch of visitors from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region cross to the Chiense mainland on Jan 8, 2023 at the Futian port in Shenzhen. PARKER ZHENG CHINA DAILY The business community in Hong Kong has applauded for travel normalization with the Chinese mainland as a crucial step in accelerating the city's economic recovery.
Tommy Cheung Yu-yanCheung Yu-yan, a member of the Catering Functional Constituency, said that the sectors of retail, catering, inbound tourism and transportation will benefit from Hong Kong's travel normalization with the mainland.
Beginning on February 6, the land border crossings between Hong Kong and the mainland will no longer have a cap on the number of people, and the pre-entry nucleic acid testing requirements will be abolished. All entry and exit ports will be reopened.
Allen Shi Lop-takShi Lop-tak, president of the Chinese Manufacturers Association of Hong Kong, says travel normalization with the mainland is a key step to bring mainland tourists back to Hong Kong and to help the city's domestic demand and accelerate economic recovery.
As the mainland resumes inbound tour groups, this will help spur more mainlanders to travel and participate in commercial activities in Hong Kong, causing the inbound tourism industry, retail, catering, hotels and other industries to have an accelerated recovery, according to Shi notes.
Shi argues that the cancellation of nucleic acid testing and other requirements will bring convenience to cross-border drivers. Smoother cross-border transportation is expected to speed up the improvement of Hong Kong's export and export performance this year.
Cheung expects it to take several months for companies to recover their losses during the COVID -- 19 epidemic. He said that enterprises have to deal with the labor shortage before they can really benefit from travel normalization.
Cheung urged the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government to look into importing labor especially in the retail and catering sectors, where a labor shortage is rampant. The catering industry is projected to have a manpower shortfall of 30,000 people, covering job positions of waitresses, chefs and restaurant managers. In addition to labor importation, the government should announce more initiatives in the upcoming budget, such as extending the Principal Payment Holiday Scheme and providing financial subsidies for businesses to pay electricity and water charges, as well as restaurant licencing fees, according to Cheung.
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Open borders will boost tourism and increase retail consumption, and will increase rated property companies' aggregate retail rental income by 5 percent to 10 percent in 2023. Between 2010 and 2019, spending by mainland tourists accounted for around 30 percent to 40 percent of Hong Kong retail sales, according to a research note on Friday by Moody s Investors Service.