HK seeks to give tourism new life

Tourism officials from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong will hold high-level talks in the special administrative region, where shop owners have seen frosty sales.

Further trouble lies ahead, as prospects for mainland visitors during the New Year and Chinese New Year holidays remain bleak, said Joseph Tung, executive director of the Travel Industry Council in Hong Kong.

Delegates from the Guangdong Provincial Tourism Bureau will meet with their Hong Kong counterparts later this week to discuss a raft of measures to reignite interest in Hong Kong as a tourist destination, as the start of the holiday season failed to arrest a slide in the number of tours.