XN000022-1997-01-08 — Page 57

- 42

Visitors to HK before handover

Following is a question by the Hon Howard Young and a written reply by the acting Secretary for Economic Services, Mr Leo Kwan, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Question:

Will the Government inform this Council whether it has an estimate of the extra benefits which will be brought to the tourism industry as a result of an upsurge in the number of visitors arriving in the territory in the period immediately before the transfer of sovereignty on 1 July this year; if so, what the details are?

Answer:

Mr President,

The number of visitors coming to Hong Kong in the period immediately before the transfer of sovereignty on 1 July 1997 will be constrained mainly by the capacity of the hotel industry. All the hotel rooms in Hong Kong are expected to be occupied during that period. Assuming that the current room sharing rate of 1.7 persons per room will remain applicable, the maximum number of additional visitors which the hotel industry can accommodate will be in the region of 8300.

Assuming that 8300 additional visitors will stay in Hong Kong for an average of ten days and these visitors will spend, on average, $3000 per day (which is approximately the average spending of visitors staying in four-star hotels), their total net additional spending is estimated at around $250 million.

The above estimate may nevertheless turn out to be conservative for the following reasons. First, some of the visitors may stay in guesthouses or with friends and relatives, thereby enabling visitors to be accommodated beyond the hotel room capacity constraint. Secondly, with such an upsurge in demand, hotels may charge higher room tariff for all visitors, thus generating a higher revenue. Thirdly, if some of the visitors opt to stay longer than ten days, their spending will correspondingly increase.

End