ENG-2016 — Page 370

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Travel and Tourism

The board's Quality Tourism Services (QTS) Scheme encourages shops, restaurants and visitor accommodation facilities to offer good services. It enjoys broad support; by the end of 2016, some 1,250 local establishments with about 8,200 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 the community. More than 3,400 young people have joined the programme so far, rendering more than 310,000 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 for stays of seven to 180 days.

The Mainland's Individual Visit Scheme permits residents of 49 designated Mainland cities to visit Hong Kong on their own instead of in tour groups. About 24 million Mainlanders visited Hong Kong under the scheme in 2016, representing about 57 per cent of all Mainland arrivals. Upon the Hong Kong government's request, the central government on 13 April 2015 announced replacing multiple-entry Individual Visit Endorsements for permanent residents of Shenzhen with 'one trip per week' Individual Visit Endorsements with immediate effect.

Protection of Travellers

Travel agents must obtain a government licence and be Travel Industry Council members to carry out travel business under the Travel Agents Ordinance. The council requires in its directive that only tourist guides it accredits can be assigned to receive inbound visitors. The council investigates complaints and takes disciplinary action against travel agents who do not observe its rules. Hong Kong had 1,740 licensed travel agents and 6,391 accredited tourist guides at the end of 2016.

The statutory Travel Industry Compensation Fund provides ex gratia payments of up to 90 per cent of the loss of outbound fares to outbound travellers in the event of a travel agent default. Ex gratia payments close to $2,441,000 were paid to 1,931 travellers affected by three default cases in 2016. The fund also offers aid in cases of outbound travellers injured or killed in accidents in the course of an activity arranged by a travel agent. It made an ex gratia payment of $23,000 for an accident that happened in 2016. Travellers must submit their applications within 24 months from the date of loss arising from a travel agent default or an outbound accident, and the review starts once all necessary documents are produced.

New Regulatory Framework

Following a review of the regulatory framework, the government will introduce a bill into the Legislative Council in the first half of 2017 to set up an independent statutory body, the Travel Industry Authority, to regulate travel agents, tourist guides and tour escorts.

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