The Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong (TIC) is pleased to learn that under a pilot scheme unveiled in the latest phase of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) between the mainland and Hong Kong, wholly-owned or joint-venture Hong Kong travel agencies set up in Guangdong province are allowed to operate package tours to Hong Kong and Macao for Guangdong residents.

This is the first time that mainland China’s outbound market has been opened to outside travel agencies. The TIC, which has lobbied the authorities for many years, welcomes the move and believes that it will provide new opportunities for local travel agencies to invest in mainland outbound business.

The TIC pledges support for the China National Tourism Administration’s policy of ensuring a high standard of professional ethics in the travel and tourism industry, and will continue to upgrade the service quality of travel agencies in order to enhance their service quality and protect traveller interests. The TIC believes that the opening up of the mainland’s outbound market is a promising step in the right direction, which will certainly prompt local travel agencies to grasp this opportunity and offer a wide variety of travel products and services to mainland travellers, and hopes that the outbound market will be fully opened up in the future.

The TIC would like to express its wholehearted gratitude to the Central Government for its unstinting support for Hong Kong’s travel and tourism industry, which has made industry members on both sides of the border continue to thrive and prosper.