the travel industry council of hong kong

Introduction of Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong

The Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong (TIC) was established in 1978 and entrusted by law in 1988 to self-regulate travel agents in Hong Kong. It has since then become the representative organisation of the industry and has always been dedicated to raising the standard of professionalism of the industry, with strict requirements thus set for outbound and inbound travel agents, tourist guides and tour escorts in order that outbound and inbound travellers are provided with quality service.

Over the past four decades, the TIC has offered various services to members such as organising activities, training courses, seminars and workshops; setting down and enforcing various rules and regulations to uphold a high standard of service and fair competition within the industry; and issuing regular publications. Recently, the TIC is also developing a Belt and Road and Greater Bay Area Web-based Tourism Resource Platform, as well as organising visits to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, to help members grasp the tourism development opportunities. The TIC is also committed to raising awareness of travel safety and travel protection among travellers, and handling enquiries and complaints lodged by outbound travellers and inbound visitors.

About Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong

About the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong Established in 1978, the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong (TIC) has been a self-regulatory body of travel agents under the Travel Agents (Amendment) Ordinance since 1988. It has performed an important role in regulating the trade and promoting the development of the travel industry until it completed its historic mission of self-regulating the industry and took up the role of the federation of trade associations in the third quarter of 2022. The TIC’s membership includes eight Association Members and about 1,680 travel agents. The objectives of the TIC are to promote development and professionalism of the industry, continuously enhance the service standards of the industry, protect and promote members’ rights, interests and welfare, assist members to explore new business opportunities, as well as to strengthen partnerships with travel-related organisations within and outside Hong Kong. The TIC has been organising training courses on tour escorting skills, tour guiding skills, ticketing and reservation, customer relations, selling skills, travel agency management and selling of cruise holiday packages, as well as workshops for travel consultants. It has also organised a large number of seminars for the Continuing Professional Development Scheme for Tourist Guides (“CPD Scheme”). These courses, workshops and seminars have all along been delivered in a physical learning environment i.e. the face-to-face delivery mode. Further information about the TIC can be found at https://www.tichk.org .

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Hong Kong’s new tourism watchdog preps for 2022 launch

The Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong (TIC) is set to be replaced by the Travel Industry Authority (TIA) as the statutory regulatory body of the tourism sector, when the latter launches in early 2022.

With plunging levy incomes and diminished membership fees since the pandemic struck, TIC faces an uphill battle to restore fiscal sustainability. For instance, total levies collected plummeted 91.3 per cent, from HK$28.2 million (US$3.6 million) in 2019 to HK$2.4 million in 2020.

To provide relief for its struggling members, the Council has recently allowed them to co-share office premises so that they can enjoy greater flexibility while saving on rent and resources.

TIC chairman, Jason Wong, shared that the company had to cut its workforce by one-third in late-November last year in order to stay lean as its cashflow depleted to less than HK$20 million.

He added: “Hopefully, our 30-staff headcount can survive till the handover of regulatory responsibilities to Travel Industry Authority early next year.”

Established in January 2020, TIA will be responsible for promoting integrity, competence and professionalism of travel agents, tourist guides and tour escorts through a statutory licensing and regulatory system, and regulating shops that inbound tour groups are arranged to patronise through an administrative scheme. It will also be responsible for managing the Travel Industry Compensation Fund which provides protection for outbound travellers purchasing outbound packages.

The executive office of the Authority will be headed by an executive director and has three divisions, namely, regulatory affairs division, operations division, and corporate services division. Estimated staff count stands at 99, with the first batch of TIA staff, including its executive director, set to start assuming duty from late January 2021.

A spokesman for the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau told TTG Asia : “TIA has been forging ahead with the necessary preparatory work, including establishing committees; drawing up internal rules of procedures; securing a long-term office; launching phased recruitment of staff; devising directives, guidelines and codes of conduct regulating travel agents, tourist guides and tour escorts; as well as acquiring essential services such as legal services for drafting of the subsidiary legislation under the Ordinance.”

He expects that all necessary preparations for the implementation of the new regulatory regime will be completed in about two years’ time. Before that happens, the Authority does not hold any regulatory powers. Travel agents, tourist guides and tour escorts will continue to be regulated by the Travel Agents Registry and TIC, respectively.

“To ensure a smooth transition, TIA has been in close liaison with the Travel Industry Council and the Travel Agents Registry to work out the detailed transitional arrangements,” said the spokesman.

“In the preparatory process, TIA will also consult the industry and maintain dialogue with stakeholders to gauge their views for drawing up the future regulatory standards and relevant arrangements.”

Former TIC chairman and a member of TIA’s board of directors, Michael Wu, told TTG Asia : “TIC has been playing the role of a trade association lacking in statutory power. When I was the chairman at TIC years ago, I told the government that it would be unprofessional for us to carry out self-regulatory responsibilities.”

Instead, there should have been a subsidiary, or preferably a separate body run by external parties, to carry out the regulatory role, so as to draw a clear line between its commercial operations and regulatory duties.

Said Wu: “Frankly, there weren’t many complaints from outbound and international clients back then. It was only when arrivals from mainland China surged, triggering an increase in the number of inbound agents and subsequently, numerous complaints of sub-standard service. Hence, this prompted the need for a statutory regulatory body set up by the government, due to FITs from China exerting pressure on the trade.”

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Explainer: Hong Kong’s tourism sector faces long road to recovery despite easing of Covid curbs

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Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, Lunar New Year was a busy period for Hong Kong’s tourism industry, when visitors from mainland China would take advantage of the long break to travel to the city.

Scenes of busy border control points have been absent for the past three years as Hong Kong remained largely isolated under strict anti-epidemic rules. With many of those restrictions recently relaxed , 2023 could mark a year of recovery for the city’s tourism industry, and on numerous occasions, Chief Executive John Lee has heralded Hong Kong’s return to the international stage.

Two weeks after quarantine-free travel was resumed between Hong Kong and mainland China , HKFP examines the current state of the city’s tourism sector with its pre-pandemic position.

Crippled pillar of economy

Since 2002, tourism has been identified as one of Hong Kong’s four “pillar industries,” which have served as the driving forces behind the city’s economic growth.

In 2018, official data showed visitor-related economic activities contributed to 3.6 per cent of the city’s gross domestic product (GDP), creating jobs for over 225,000 Hongkongers.

But that pillar has been almost entirely dismantled by the Covid-19 pandemic and three years of crippling restrictions on visitors .

In 2020, the year the coronavirus swept across the world and disrupted global traffic, the inbound tourism trade contributed just 0.2 per cent of Hong Kong’s GDP. The following year, it only accounted for 0.05 per cent of GDP.

After accounting for inflation, official data showed the economic input from inbound arrivals stood at HK$3.89 billion in third quarter of 2022, 95 per cent less than the HK$76.7 billion made during the first quarter of 2019.

The Executive Director of the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong Fanny Yeung told reporters on Thursday that the sector had lost an estimated 50 per cent of manpower when compared with pre-pandemic levels.

Data from the Census and Statistics Department painted an even grimmer picture, estimating that the number of people working in inbound tourism was only 3,100 in 2021 – less than 1.4 per cent of the 2018 amount.

Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, visitors have become rare sightings in Hong Kong.

While the number of overseas visitors has grown since authorities scrapped quarantine for international arrivals last September , it remains at a fraction of pre-Covid levels.

Last November, Hong Kong received 55,000 visitors from places other than mainland China, less than one-10th of the amount who came in November 2019, when the city was in the grip of protests and unrest.

Fall in mainland visitors

The number of mainland Chinese visitors, who have been the city’s largest source market since 1994, also plummeted over the past three years.

While quarantine-free travel between mainland China and Hong Kong resumed on January 8 , and high-speed rail services restarted a week after , there are quotas in place to limit the number of cross-border travellers per day.

The number of mainland Chinese arrivals, however, has not yet come close to the initial daily quota of 50,000 through Hong Kong’s land ports in the first two weeks since normal travel resumed.

On Friday – two days ahead of the Lunar New Year – Hong Kong received 14,892 mainland visitors. That was three times the number that came on January 8, but 8.3 per cent of the daily average in January 2019.

About 70 per cent of Hong Kong arrivals since January 8 have been Hong Kong residents.

When HKFP asked Yeung of the Travel Industry Council about the lukewarm response among mainland Chinese visitors, Yeung said it was “something that they expect in the initial stage.”

She said that news of border reopening came in short notice before the Lunar New Year. “Mainland residents always plan their Chinese New Year holiday well in advance,” she said, adding that they would still have to apply for visas.

“We will estimate… maybe starting from mid-February, visitors from mainland [China] will be gradually increasing,” Yeung added.

Yeung said she did not think Hong Kong had lost its appeal to its main source of visitors, as attractions that had opened during Covid times would be a breath of fresh air for those who have not set foot in the city for three years.

Long road ahead

But at the same time, Yeung told HKFP she did not think her industry was in recovery yet. “Inbound visitors are less than one per cent of the pre-pandemic time,” she added.

The Travel Industry Council is currently fighting for government subsidies to revive the sector.

Its chairperson Gianna Hsu said in a Thursday press meeting that many of the 1,600 travel agencies in the city had shrunk to survive the tourist drought, with some left with just one desk.

In order to resume operation, these companies need funds to rehire staff, rent proper offices, purchase business necessities and promote their services across the world – Yeung estimated that they would need a total of HK$100 million from the government.

“If we don’t have this subsidy, frankly, we don’t know if we can really revive or not,” she said.

Even with government help, Yeung said the rebound of Hong Kong’s travel industry will still take time.

“We would still expect a long road for tourism to recover, maybe towards the middle of next year? I think that is the timeframe we are looking for.”

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Peter Lee is a reporter for HKFP. He was previously a freelance journalist at Initium, covering political and court news. He holds a Global Communication bachelor degree from CUHK.

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Composition

The TIC comprises eight Association Members , some 1,550 member agents, the Board of Directors, 9 committees and the Executive Office. Before coming to any decision to implement a policy, the Board will first consult the relevant committees and then have the Executive Office carry it out.

Board of Directors
Executive Office

The Peninsula sees challenges as Hong Kong luxury hotel chain seeks to counter ‘negative perception’ hobbling tourism industry

There is still a negative perception about Hong Kong among travellers from the US and Europe, slowing the city's tourism rebound, CEO says
The Kadoorie-controlled group, which opened The Peninsula in London and Istanbul last year, will freeze plan in Myanmar to focus on these new hotels

Hong Kong's hospitality sector is likely to face more challenges ahead as tourist arrivals struggle to return to pre-pandemic levels, delaying a recovery in occupancy and tourism spending, according to Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels (HSH), which owns The Peninsula hotels.

"International travellers from the US and Europe to Hong Kong and mainland China are low," Clement Kwok, managing director and CEO of HSH, said in an interview. "There is still a negative perception in those markets about Hong Kong. We are trying to overcome it, so that people will come back to Hong Kong and experience all of the good things it has to offer. That will take some time."

Trade wars, economic crises and geopolitical conflicts would not be good for international travel business, he said in general, issues that have plagued US-China ties in recent years and hurt Hong Kong for its role as a "superconnector" and regional financial hub.

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The city's hotel industry enjoyed some recovery last year as Covid-19 travel restrictions were belatedly dismantled, helping lift monthly hotel occupancy rate to as high as 87 per cent from 75 per cent in 2022, according to data compiled by Colliers. Before the social unrest in 2019, local hotels filled 94 per cent of the rooms.

The Hong Kong Tourism Board expects 46 million tourists to visit the city this year, representing a 35 per cent increase from 2023. The forecast suggests the recovery is some way off the 65 million level recorded in 2018. Meanwhile, spending per overnight visitor is expected to shrink by as much as 16.4 per cent to HK$5,800 (US$741) this year, it added.

HSH, which now operates 12 hotels globally, turned around with a profit of HK$146 million last year, from a HK$488 million loss in 2022. The group added a 190-room hotel in London and a 177-room asset in Istanbul to its network in 2023. HSH is controlled by the Kadoorie family, an Iraqi-Jewish clan that first arrived in Hong Kong more than 140 years ago.

The recovery in business at The Peninsula in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing has trailed other hotels in the group when compared with 2018 levels, Kwok said. "When my teams travelled to the US and Europe to talk to travel agents, saying 'we want to promote Hong Kong and China,' the reaction was not so strong," he said. "We are trying to change that."

Hong Kong has also been trying to help the industry by hosting art, cultural and financial events, Kwok noted. HSH on its part is also holding its own 'Art in Residence' promotion to attract more visitors. The government has set aside HK$1.09 billion to spur the local tourism trade and lure a new generation of travellers.

The government recently faced criticisms from the US and Britain for what they described as an "incredibly vague" domestic national security law, a constitutionally-mandated "Article 23" legislation which had been shelved for more than two decades because of initial opposition. Beijing defended the new law, which came into effect last week.

Beijing hits back at US criticism of Hong Kong's Article 23 security law

Hong Kong also received flak for being one of the last cities to lift all pandemic restrictions, due to Beijing's zero-Covid policy, which had turned away tourists even as other places had fully reopened their borders.

Kwok, who opened five Peninsula hotels during his 22-year tenure in the group, will retire in October at the age of 65, after his service was extended for five years. He will remain as an executive director and adviser to his yet-to-be-named successor until May 2025.

Kwok believes that The Peninsula hotels will weather the challenges, noting that all their hotels are owned and managed by HSH as long-term investment. Myanmar is an exception, as HSH has decided to freeze its plan for Yangon to conserve capital and stabilise its new hotels in London and Istanbul in the next two years, he said.

"There will always be demand for super-luxury," he said. "In the last 20 to 30 years, there has been tremendous wealth creation and people want to enjoy it when they have money."

Continuing Professional Development

The objectives of the Continuing Professional Development Scheme for Tourist Guides (CPD Scheme) are:

to encourage tourist guides to constantly absorb new knowledge and upgrade themselves, and
to systematically maintain and upgrade tourist guides’ professional knowledge, skills and ethics.

Target tourist guides

Those who submit their application for the Tourist Guide Pass on or before 31 December 2011 and are issued with the Pass subsequently must first fulfil the requirements of the Continuing Professional Development Scheme for Tourist Guides (CPD Scheme) in order to meet the basic criteria for renewal of their Pass when they renew their Pass for the second time or subsequent times . For those who submit their application on or after 1 January 2012 and are issued with the Pass subsequently, they must meet the requirements of the CPD Scheme every time they renew their Pass.

People holding the general Tourist Guide Pass (who can use any language to receive inbound package tours) and those holding the Tourist Guide Pass for English-speaking tourist guides (who cannot use Cantonese or Mandarin to receive inbound package tours) must fulfil the requirements of the CPD Scheme according to the above regulation.
People holding the Tourist Guide Pass for non-English-and-Chinese-speaking guides (who obtain the Pass through the Waiver Programme for Non-English-and-Chinese-Speaking Tourist Guides or the Accreditation System for Non-English-and-Chinese-Speaking Tourist Guides and cannot use Cantonese, Mandarin or English to receive inbound package tours) are temporarily exempted from the CPD Scheme until further announcements.
Non-English-and-Chinese-speaking tourist guides who obtain the general Tourist Guide Pass by completing the SUS In-service Tour Guide Training Course (course discontinued) may choose to: (i) take part in the CPD Scheme in order to renew their Pass, which does not have any restriction on languages to be used; or (ii) not take part in the CPD Scheme, in which case they will only be issued with the Pass for Non-English-and-Chinese-speaking tourist guides when renewing their Pass, and will not be allowed to use Cantonese, Mandarin or English to receive inbound package tours.

Requirements

Tourist guides must fulfil the requirements set out below in Items A, B and C during each CPD period (a CPD period refers to the three-year period when the Tourist Guide Pass is valid) in order to be considered to have completed the CPD Scheme. Items A, B and C shown below can be completed in any order, but the number of hours exceeding the requirement will not be carried over into the next CPD period.

A. Consolidation and updating of knowledge

Content: “Knowledge on Hong Kong” (information on scenic spots, basic facts about Hong Kong, relevant statistics, etc.)

“Knowledge on Hong Kong” Workshop: The workshop, which lasts at least six hours, will be held by organisations recognised by the TIC.

“Knowledge on Hong Kong” Quiz: The TIC will issue a new edition of “Knowledge on Hong Kong” each year for tourist guides’ reference and self-study. Quizzes will be held regularly for tourist guides (a fee is needed). The Quiz contains 40 multiple-choice questions. The number of resits is unlimited.

Download Application Form for “Knowledge on Hong Kong” Quiz
Download Application Form for “Knowledge on Hong Kong” Make-up Quiz
Download Application Form for Re-marking “Knowledge on Hong Kong” Quiz
Download Sample Questions for “Knowledge on Hong Kong” Quiz

Requirement: Tourist guides need to attend the workshop OR pass the quiz before applying for their Pass for the second time or subsequent times.

B. Professional ethics

Content: Professional ethics, “Honest Travel”, legal liability related to the work of tourist guides, etc.

Mainly specialised seminars or case-study workshops (each lasting for about 2.5 to 3 hours ).
Specified or regularly organised by the TIC.
Tourist guides may freely choose suitable seminars or workshops to attend (fees are needed).

Requirement:

Tourist guides need to attend at least one specialised seminar or workshop lasting for 2.5 to 3 hours during each CPD period.
The number of hours exceeding the requirement will not be carried over into the next CPD period.
Please download the enrolment form for specialised seminars held by the TIC here .

C. Self-selected courses

When choosing a course for ‘self-selected courses’, tourist guides are required to make sure that the relevant course providers, mode of teaching, course content, duration and proofing documents comply with the Guideline on Item C: Self -selected Courses . Otherwise, the course taken may not be accepted as ‘Item C: self-selected courses’ of the CPD Scheme.
Tourist guide may contact the TIC Industry Training Department on 2807-1199 to check whether the content of a course meets the requirements of the CPD Scheme.