"Shopping Paradise" Has Become A "Hong Kong Embarrassing" Retail Industry.

During the Qingming Festival and Easter holidays in April 2015, the total number of tourists arriving in Hongkong, including mainland tourists, dropped by 12.4%.

The number of visitors to Hong Kong continued to drop for 7 months.

Hongkong used to be accustomed to frequent growth of more than 10 percentage points. At present, it may even continue to travel in the cold winter. It is a great challenge for the people of Hong Kong.

According to the statistics of Hongkong's entry and exit, the number of visitors to Hong Kong every year is close to 60 million. Among them, the number of mainland visitors to Hong Kong increased from 10.1% to 34.5% every year from 2003 to 2013, with an average annual increase of 23.6%.

Among them, the number of visas travelled by "one sign multi line" increased from 1 million 500 thousand in 2009 to about 12 million, occupying about half of all mainland visitors.

In February 15th, Hongkong Disney disclosed its 2015 performance, with a net loss of HK $148 million for the first time in 2012.

Affected by the cold wave of the tourism industry, not only is Disney Park, but also another big theme park in Hongkong, Hong Kong Ocean Park recently reported that during the Spring Festival, the number of mainland tour groups recorded a double-digit decline.

The report also pointed out that the number of admission to the park dropped by 14% in 2015.

Tom Mehrmann, chief executive of Ocean Park, told the media that in July 2015, the number of mainland tourists accounted for more than half of the total number of tourists entering the park. Now it has dropped to 40%.

Tom Mehrmann predicts that this decline will continue for some time in the future.

The cold wave caused by the decrease in the number of mainland tourists is protracted.

Since the third quarter of 2014, tourism in Hongkong has started to go from bad to worse.

According to the latest data released by the Hongkong Tourism Board in January 29, 2016, there were 59 million 307 thousand arrivals in 2015, a decrease of 2.5% over 2014, of which 45 million 842 thousand were mainland passengers, 3% lower than that in 2014 and 5.7% to 17 million 996 thousand for overnight arrivals in the mainland.

The total number of visitors to Hong Kong has declined for 7 months.

The "Christmas discount season", which was expected to be expected, also failed to bring a hint of warmth to Hongkong.

In December 2015, the number of mainland visitors to Hong Kong was only 3 million 720 thousand, a record drop of 15.5% in 2015.

Although tourism accounts for the smallest proportion of the four pillar industries in Hongkong, since the opening of "free travel" to mainland residents in 2003, Hongkong's tourism value-added and employment growth have long been the top four pillar industries.

In July 2003, in order to support

In response to the impact of SARS, the development of the economy and improvement of people's livelihood, the central government at the request of the Hong Kong government launched the "free travel" of the mainland residents to Hong Kong and the first batch of 4 pilot cities.

In the next few years, "free travel" has gradually extended to 49 cities in the mainland.

In 2009, to help Hongkong cope with the international situation.

The mainland has also opened "one sign and many lines", that is, allowing eligible Shenzhen residents to apply for a round trip to Hongkong for a year.

The booming tourism industry has brought golden age to the retail industry in Hongkong.

According to the Statistics Department of Hongkong, Hongkong's wholesale and retail sales in 2003 amounted to 35 billion 140 million yuan, accounting for 2.9% of GDP in that year.

10 years later, in 2013, Hongkong's wholesale and retail sales reached 110 billion 200 million yuan, accounting for 5.3% of GDP in that year.

The number of employed persons in the retail industry also increased steadily at an average annual rate of 2.2%.

Even if there are beautiful figures as the most convincing results, the "freedom line" policy to Hongkong can not be ignored.

Tourist trips

A large number of gold shops and pharmacies have replaced old tea restaurants and low-priced old shops into busy streets. The pace of daily life of local people has been affected to a certain extent.

The sale of products that were originally sold in Hongkong to the mainland, so that the profits of the "parallel buyers" began to become increasingly rampant, and some prices in Hongkong began to rise. The shortage of local goods was difficult to meet the needs of the people of Hong Kong, and tourism facilities began to have inadequate reception capacity.

The problems exposed by "free travel" can not be avoided by both sides.