The Government has always been encouraging the travel trade to develop more in-depth itineraries with different distinctive themes, so as to attract inbound tourists to explore unique local characteristics of Hong Kong. Therefore, the Government announced today that the second phase of “Characteristic Local Tourism Incentive Scheme” (the Scheme) will be launched on 1 October 2024. The Scheme will:
 

• Retain only the Thematic Travel (i.e. Category B under the first phase of the Scheme, and Category A under the Scheme will be discontinued): Eligible travel agents will be required to develop local thematic itineraries under one of the six distinctive themes in line with the Scheme objectives;
   
• Provide 250 new quota for each eligible licensed travel agent: Such quota are only applicable to participants who are inbound tourists (who stay at least one night in Hong Kong). Travel agents which organise eligible tours will receive a cash incentive of HK$400 in respect of each inbound tourist they serve;
   
• Applicable to tours to be departed during the period from 1 October 2024 and 31 March 2025 (inclusive of both dates).
   

For the avoidance of doubt, the quota for all travel agents will be newly allocated. In other words, any unused quota of travel agents in Phase 1 will not be applicable to the Phase 2 of the Scheme.

In addition, both the reference of thematic travel itineraries and the list of recognised training activities will be updated during the phase 2 of the Scheme. Details will be published in the Guide to Application. Revised documents of the Scheme will be published on the TIC website. 
 

For inquiry, please contact TIC at 2969 8149.