ENG-2013 — Page 374

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Travel and Tourism

The HKTB's Quality Tourism Services (QTS) Scheme promotes good quality services at shops, restaurants and visitor accommodation facilities and is widely supported. By the end of 2013 some 1,330 local establishments with about 8,300 outlets had earned QTS accreditation.

Hospitality initiatives

Hospitality is essential to sustaining tourism. The government runs a 'Hong Kong Young Ambassador Scheme' to train young people to be polite and helpful to visitors and to develop a strong hospitality culture in schools and in the community. More than 2,600 young people have joined the programme so far, rendering more than 220,000 hours of ambassadorial service.

Easier Entry for Visitors

Hong Kong is one of the world's most immigration-friendly cities. Travellers from some 170 countries and territories enjoy visa-free access to the city for stays of between seven and 180 days.

The Mainland's Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) permits citizens of 49 designated Mainland cities to visit Hong Kong on their own instead of in tour groups. More than 27 million Mainlanders visited Hong Kong under the scheme in 2013, representing about 67 per cent of all Mainland arrivals. In 2013, 12.15 million Shenzhen residents visited Hong Kong using the one-year multiple-entry IVS endorsement for Shenzhen permanent residents.

Protection of Travellers

Travel agents must obtain a licence from the government and be members of the TIC to carry out travel business. The TIC investigates complaints against travel agents and takes disciplinary action against agents who do not observe its rules. There were 1,701 licensed travel agents at the end of 2013.

The Travel Industry Compensation Fund (TICF) provides ex gratia payments of up to 90 per cent of the loss of tour fares to outbound travellers in the event of a travel agent default. A total of $2,844,000 was paid to 1,955 travellers affected by three default cases in 2013 and three default cases in 2011 and 2012. The TICF also provides emergency financial assistance to outbound travellers injured or killed in accidents in the course of an activity arranged by a travel agent. An ex gratia payment amounting to $17,000 was made in 2013 for an accident in 2012.

Travel agents have to assign accredited tourist guides to receive inbound visitors. There were 6,799 accredited tourist guides in Hong Kong at the end of 2013.

New Regulatory Framework for the Tourism Sector

Following a review of the tourism sector's regulatory framework in 2011, the government decided to set up an independent statutory body, the Travel Industry Authority (TIA), to regulate travel agents, tourist guides and tour escorts. The government is drafting legislation for the new regulatory regime and will continue discussions with the travel trade to refine some of the detailed arrangements and address the trade's concerns. It is expected that the bill could

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