How Hong Kong Travel Agents Can Raise Their Game

Readers discuss the competition from mainland tour agencies, accommodating cyclists on Hong Kong roads, and pets in malls and on trains

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It is not surprising that more than 281,000 Hong Kong residents left the city over the Labour Day weekend (“Hong Kong welcomes 213,000 mainland tourists as ‘golden week’ break starts”,

May 1

But what deserves our attention is that more Hongkongers seem to be joining mainland tour groups for these overseas vacations. I recently visited Egypt on a mainland Chinese group tour and was surprised to find that a good number of my fellow joiners were actually Hongkongers, who still live in Hong Kong.

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Especially when foreign countries have a visa-free arrangement with mainland China, the tour price can be much lower if you join a mainland tour group. Flying business class with a mainland Chinese airline is also cheaper, while service and catering standards have caught up with those of international airlines.

By utilizing the extensive network of overseas Chinese immigrants, mainland Chinese travel agencies can more effectively allocate resources at popular vacation spots and offer superior services. Consequently, traveling abroad through these agencies proves to be highly economical.

Although this may pose concerns for the Hong Kong tourism sector, it also presents potential avenues for local travel agencies to collaborate with their counterparts in Mainland China or airlines.

As far as I understand, the primary reason people from Hong Kong are traveling abroad is

via mainland China

is the much lower prices. Hong Kong, of course, would never survive a price war, given the higher costs of labour and transport. But making tourism offerings more affordable will no doubt help retain local tourists on tighter budgets or those who wish to enjoy better service for less; collaborating with mainland airlines and travel agencies could be a way out.

Another edge mainland agencies have over local agencies is the size of the prospective customer base. The mainland market is enormous, and intermodal passenger transport is common across the country.

Mainland travel agencies arrange for tourists coming from different cities to fly to a certain city as the meeting point and set off from there. It is this customer base that empowers mainland agencies to launch many more different tourism products catering to different needs. Hong Kong travel agencies can certainly do the same to embrace the mainland market. With more customers, Hong Kong travel agencies would be able to diversify their tourism products, which in turn would benefit local consumers.

Anson Chan, Guangzhou

Hong Kong must wake up to the benefits of green living

I am disheartened to observe that the headlines in Hong Kong newspapers concerning cycling pertain to

accidents

near accidents

and

disputes involving cyclists

In some manner or form.

Why is it that although Hong Kong wants to be regarded as “Asia’s world city”, we have done nothing for the betterment of pedestrians and cyclists in an age where the environment and green living should take a front seat?

Recently, it was highlighted that air pollution in Paris has significantly declined since 2005. Data from Airparif, an independent body for air quality surveillance, shows that concentrations of fine particles in the city have reduced by 55 percent, and nitrogen dioxide levels have plummeted by half. These improvements can be linked to car usage limitations as well as the conversion of roadways into bicycle paths and areas designated for pedestrians.

While happy for Paris, I felt sad about the state of affairs in Hong Kong. I live in a Sai Kung country park, a part of Hong Kong that should have embraced people over traffic as a matter of course. Instead, taxis and minibuses are given carte blanche to race up and down the narrow paved roads, at the peril of hikers and cyclists.

When will we wake up and include bike lanes on our roads and exclude traffic from our so-called parks? It is high time for some changes.

Ilaria Galimberti, Sai Kung

Spare a thought for dog phobics

It is very disturbing to hear that dogs and cats are allowed in so many places, including in malls and on

transport

. The other weekend at IFC Mall, there were so many dogs, it looked like a dog park.

Some dogs were walking, others in prams. Two dogs were barking at each other. Dog owners think of their pets as sons and daughters, but this is irritating to other people. We want some peace on weekends when we are doing our shopping, not dogs barking at us.

You cannot control animals. Sometimes they listen, sometimes they don’t. Malls don’t have enough staff to watch the animals, and some pet owners might not listen to staff. Or they might argue that their dog is very well-behaved.

Consider everyone else too. Picture this: someone with a dog boards an overcrowded train like the MTR, leaving you nowhere to go. Not everyone feels comfortable having a dog so close, and some may panic. Let’s allow ourselves to have peaceful weekends without such disturbances.

Da Cooper, Central