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Chinese tourists shun Hong Kong due to harsh buying pressures

May 6, 2006, 5:18 GMT

Hong Kong - Mainland Chinese tourists are shunning Hong Kong because they are fed up with overcharging and intense spending pressures, according to news reports Saturday. The number of Chinese visiting the former British colony during May's week-long Labour Day holiday fell to 285,000, more than 11,000 less than in 2005, official figures showed. Tour groups from the mainland dropped by almost 20 per cent compared to last year, according to the Inland Travel Association, quoted by the South China Morning Post. Some tour guides said tourists were tired of being encouraged to buy souvenirs at inflated prices during shopping trips, according to the Post. Ann Yu, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Tourist Guides Association, said mainland tourists were paying low prices for tours but that guides were under intense pressure to make them spend once they arrived. 'Sometimes tourists' lunches are delayed, or they are forbidden to return to their hotels until they make purchases,' she told the Post. 'In the worse scenario, shopkeepers close their shops to trap tourists,' Yu said, adding that some groups were taken to six or seven shops in the space of a three-day visit. Tourists have also become wary of rising hotel prices, as the territory's economy has slowly recovered from a prolonged recession in 2003. Mainland Chinese tourists account for more than half of the more than 20 million visitors a year to the city of 6.8 million. A former British colony, Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule in 1997. Cross-border travel restrictions were substantially eased in 2003, allowing tens of millions of Chinese visitors to visit Hong Kong without needing to be part of an official tour. © 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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