316 Travel and Tourism
Service Quality
To promote a high standard of service in shops and restaurants, the Hong Kong Tourism Board's Quality Tourism Services (QTS) Scheme has been widely supported by the tourism industry and helped to upgrade professionalism and improve the standard of service offered to visitors. By the end of 2005, more than 1 232 retail and catering businesses, representing some 5 945 outlets, an increase of 15.3 per cent of outlets over the previous year, had received QTS accreditation.
commissioned to find
The Service Quality Study on tourism-related industries out what tourists' thought about the quality of service and whether tourism-related industries were living up to their expectations was completed in 2005. It found that visitors were generally satisfied with the performance and service quality and identified sector-specific improvements for the industry's reference. The Tourism Commission held a symposium entitled 'Service from the Heart' in July to share the study results with the travel trade.
A hospitable community is essential to the development of the tourism industry. The Tourism Commission continues to run the territory-wide public education campaign entitled 'A Hospitable Hong Kong' to promote hospitality. One of the key programmes is the Hong Kong Young Ambassador Scheme, which aims to groom a cadre of young people to serve as 'ambassadors' to overseas visitors and to spread the hospitality message among their peers.
Facilitation of Visitor Entry
The Individual Visit Scheme, introduced by the Mainland authorities to allow residents there to visit Hong Kong in a personal capacity, now covers 38 Mainland cities, including those in Guangdong province, Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Tianjian, Chengdu, Jinan, Dalian, Shenyang and nine cities in Fujian, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. The scheme has been well received, with over 5.55 million Mainland visitors arriving in Hong Kong under this scheme in 2005.
The Tourism Commission coordinated efforts among various government departments and the tourism industry to draw up measures to cope with the upsurge in Mainland visitors, especially during the 'golden week' holidays. The measures have demonstrated that Hong Kong is capable of receiving a large number of visitors. during peak holiday seasons.
Hong Kong Tourism Board
The Hong Kong Tourism Board is a subvented organisation responsible for marketing and promoting Hong Kong internationally as a destination for leisure and business travel. The board of the HKTB comprises 20 members representing a broad spectrum of interests in the tourism industry. It operates through a Head Office in Hong Kong with 14 other offices across the world and eight representative offices.
Through its various marketing activities, the HKTB strives to reinforce Hong Kong's standing as a world-class city and the most popular destination in Asia. It aims not only to increase the number of visitors to Hong Kong by promoting the city's unique diversity and sophistication, but also to enhance their experience and