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TRAVEL AND TOURISM
HONG KONG'S out-bound travel business is carried out by some 1000 travel agents who are licensed by the Registrar of Travel Agents, under the Travel Agents Ordinance. The ordinance provides the statutory framework for self-regulation of the out-bound travel industry. In order to be licensed, a travel agent must be a member of the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong.
The council is an approved representative of travel agents and tour operators in Hong Kong. It comprises six association members, namely, the Hong Kong Association of Travel Agents Limited, the Federation of Hong Kong Travellers Limited, the International Chinese Tourist Association Limited, the Society of IATA Passenger Agents Limited, the Hong Kong Taiwan Tourist Operators Association Limited and the Hong Kong Association of China Travel Organisers Limited. The council regulates member travel agents by means of a number of codes of practice and occasional directives. Members who breach the rules of self-regulation risk losing their council membership, and their licence to operate.
Out-bound travellers on tours are covered by a scheme that offers a high degree of protection. Licensed travel agents are obliged to contribute one per cent of their out-bound tour fares to the Travel Industry Council Reserve Fund, which was established in 1988. If a licensed travel agent should collapse, travellers may claim compensation from this fund for up to 70 per cent of tour fares paid, by producing receipts marked to indicate payment of the one per cent levy.
During 1989, no major travel agents collapsed. The Reserve Fund collected $29,222,423 in 1989, and the total collected so far is $38,342,804. The Reserve Fund paid out $3,608,721 in compensation in 1989, and has paid out $8,484,624 in total since its inception.
Tourism
Some 5.4 million visitors came to Hong Kong in 1989, a decrease of 4.1 per cent over 1988. As a result, the tourism industry earned an estimated $36,000 million during the year, an increase of 10 per cent over the 1988 figure.
The visitors came primarily from Japan (21.9 per cent), Taiwan (21.1 per cent), the USA and Canada (14.5 per cent), South-east Asia (13.3 per cent), Western Europe (13.3 per cent), Australia and New Zealand (5.6 per cent) and South Korea (3.1 per cent).
Hong Kong Tourist Association
The Hong Kong Tourist Association (HKTA) is a statutory body set up in 1957 to develop Hong Kong's tourism industry, which today is the territory's third-largest earner of foreign
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