Report Released丨"2018 Tourism Economic Operation Review" Series Report (IX): Tourism Cooperation between the Mainland (Mainland) and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan

On January 29, the China Tourism Academy (Data Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism) released the "2018 Tourism Economic Operation Review Series Report: Tourism Development in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan". The report shows that under the policy environment of the "Belt and Road" initiative and the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as a national strategy, the tourism development of the mainland and Hong Kong and Macao has further integrated. With the implementation of relevant policies of the mainland towards Taiwan and the continued release of goodwill to Taiwan, cross-strait tourism exchanges and cooperation have been continuously promoted.

1. Current Status of Tourism Exchanges between the Mainland and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan (I) The growth rate of the mainland tourism market to Hong Kong has accelerated, but the Hong Kong tourism market to the mainland has continued to decline slightly

After the mainland tourism market to Hong Kong experienced a sharp decline in 2015 and 2016, the data available in 2017 and 2018 showed that the mainland tourism market to Hong Kong has begun to rebound, and the rebound signs are more obvious in 2018. According to the data of the Hong Kong Tourism Board, as of November 2018, the number of mainland tourists to Hong Kong was nearly 46 million, a year-on-year increase of 14.2%. While other major source markets performed generally, the mainland tourism market to Hong Kong has driven the rapid growth of Hong Kong's entire inbound tourism market. It is estimated that the number of inbound tourists received by Hong Kong in 2018 will exceed 60 million, an increase of about 10% compared with last year.

Although the Hong Kong-Mainland tourism market will continue its downward trend since 2017 in 2018, the decline has narrowed. After the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge in October, the Hong Kong-Mainland market rebounded rapidly. Looking at the whole year, the total number of Hong Kong tourists to the Mainland has declined slightly year-on-year. In addition to the impact of competition from destinations such as Japan and South Korea, this continued decline also means that the Hong Kong-Mainland market has entered a saturated development stage to a certain extent. Unlike the vast potential market for mainland tourists to Hong Kong, the Hong Kong tourism market is limited in scale. As a mature source market for the Mainland, it lacks room for large-scale growth and may continue to fluctuate or even decline slightly in the short term.

2. The mainland tourism market to Macao grew rapidly, while the Macao tourism market to the mainland maintained steady growth

In 2018, the mainland tourism market to Macau continued to maintain rapid growth. Under the circumstances that major source markets such as Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia generally declined, the rapid growth of mainland tourism to Macau played a strong supporting role in the overall inbound tourism market of Macau. According to data released by the Macau Tourism Bureau, from January to November 2018, Macau received more than 32 million inbound tourists, an increase of 9.1% over last year, of which the number of mainland tourists to Macau was nearly 23 million, a year-on-year increase of 13.3%.

In 2018, the number of tourists from Macau to the mainland slowed down compared with last year. The slowdown in the growth of the Macau tourism market to the mainland is related to the overall slowdown in the growth of Macau's outbound tourism market. From January to November 2018, the growth rate of Macau residents' outbound tourism decreased from 4.2% in the same period of 2017 to 2.1%, but the mainland is still Macau's largest outbound tourism destination.

3. The decline in the mainland’s tourism market to Taiwan has slowed down, while Taiwan’s tourism market to the mainland has maintained relatively rapid growth

In 2018, the decline in the mainland tourism market to Taiwan has tightened, and there may be a bottoming out and rebound. According to Taiwan's statistics, the number of mainland tourists to Taiwan in the first 11 months of 2018 exceeded 2.4 million, which is less than 1% of the decline compared with the sharp decline in the same period of 2017. In 2018, Taiwan's inbound tourism market will regain growth. Data from the first 11 months of 2018 showed that Taiwan received more than 9.9 million inbound tourists, a year-on-year increase of 3.3%. In addition to the tightening of the decline in the mainland source market, the Southeast Asian source market has made an indelible contribution to the recovery of Taiwan's inbound tourism market. After an ultra-high growth of nearly 30% in 2017, it will still maintain a high growth rate of about 15% in 2018.

In 2018, the growth rate of the number of tourists from Taiwan to the mainland increased compared with 2017. Statistics on outbound tourism from Taiwan show that from January to November 2018, the number of Taiwanese residents who chose to travel to the mainland as their first stop increased by 6.2% compared with the same period last year, accounting for about 25% of the entire Taiwan outbound tourism market. The mainland is Taiwan's second largest outbound tourism destination after Japan.

2. Tourism Cooperation between the Mainland (Mainland) and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan It is recommended that on the basis of interconnection, attention should be paid to publicity and promotion and improvement of service quality to promote the resumption of growth in Hong Kong tourism to the Mainland. The interconnection brought by the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong High-Speed Railway has improved the convenience of tourism exchanges between the Mainland and Hong Kong residents, and will promote tourism exchanges between the Mainland and Hong Kong to a certain extent. In the case that the Hong Kong tourism market to the Mainland has declined for two consecutive years since 2017, the Mainland needs to work hard on tourism publicity and promotion and improvement of service quality, so that Hong Kong tourists can realize that even if they have been to the Yangtze River Delta and Guilin landscape many times, there are still new content and new ways of playing, and encourage more Hong Kong tourists to visit the central and western destinations of the Mainland.

With the continuous growth of the mainland tourism market to Macau, the development and planning of Macau tourism needs to consider the carrying capacity. At present, Macau has begun to face up to this problem and plans to take corresponding measures. For example, developing smart tourism, providing tourists with real-time information on the flow of people in multiple areas at different times, so that tourists can avoid crowded areas on their own and achieve the purpose of diversion. In addition to demanding resources from space, Macau can also demand carrying capacity from time, develop night tourism, and continue to explore the interaction of night festivals such as the Macau Light and Shadow Festival to polish Macau's night tourism brand.

Continue to show goodwill and consolidate the achievements of cross-strait tourism exchanges between the mainland and Taiwan. At a time when the mainland is actively promoting the integration of culture and tourism, Taiwan is deeply loved by mainland tourists because of its cultural connection with the mainland. In addition to satisfying their feelings, more and more tourists also want to go to Taiwan to experience Chinese civilization and feel the similar Chinese culture with Taiwanese characteristics. In the future, in terms of political mutual trust, Taiwan needs to show goodwill to mainland tourists and strengthen the management of tourism safety to promote the mainland's tourism market to Taiwan to quickly get on track.

Original manuscript: Liu Xiangyan, Jiang Yiyi, Yang Jinsong, Yang Liqiong, Wen Xiaojin

Edited by: Liu Xiangyan

Source: China Tourism Academy (Data Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism)

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