How Hong Kong travel agents can raise their game
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It is not surprising that more than 281,000 Hong Kong residents left the city over the Labour Day weekend ('Hong Kong welcomes 213,000 mainland tourists as 'golden week' break starts',
May 1 ).
But what deserves our attention is that more Hongkongers seem to be joining mainland tour groups for these overseas vacations. I recently visited Egypt on a mainland Chinese group tour and was surprised to find that a good number of my fellow joiners were actually Hongkongers, who still live in Hong Kong.
Especially when foreign countries have a visa-free arrangement with mainland China, the tour price can be much lower if you join a mainland tour group. Flying business class with a mainland Chinese airline is also cheaper, while service and catering standards have caught up with those of international airlines.
Leveraging the large network of overseas immigrants from China, mainland Chinese travel agencies are better able to mobilise resources at holiday destinations and provide better service. The cost effectiveness of travelling overseas with a mainland Chinese travel agency is indeed quite high.
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While this might be a worrying trend for the Hong Kong tourism industry, there could be opportunities for local travel agencies to create synergy with their mainland counterparts or airlines.
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