Premium or budget travellers? Hong Kong's tourism chief wants both

City committing three-quarters of tourism budget to attracting more foreign travellers

- Magdalene Fung

Hong Kong is fine-tuning its tourism strategy to focus on "high-value" visitors, as the city seeks to broaden its appeal beyond budget-conscious travellers from the mainland.

An annual work plan to reinvigorate tourism in Hong Kong, presented to the legislature on April 10, said tourism officials will double down on pursuing “high-value” visitors, committing three-quarters of its 2026 tourism budget to attracting more foreign travellers.

In an exclusive interview with The Straits Times, Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Rosanna Law said that “high-value” visitors are those who stay overnight and bring in more economic benefits in terms of revenue from accommodations, as well as food and beverage.

"When you spend more time in a place, the chances are that you also spend more there,” she said.

Diversifying Hong Kong’s tourist mix has become a priority, as per capita spending among mainland travellers - by far the city’s largest group of visitors continues to drop even as their numbers rise.

In particular, the city will strengthen tourism promotion in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, India and Russia, and expand into European Union markets like the Netherlands, Italy and Spain.

“I have to be a little bit ambitious here... I want Hong Kong to be a premier destination - not just by itself, but of China, our motherland; of Asia, and of the world,” Ms Law told ST from her office in Admiralty on April 10. “Every tourist is valuable to Hong Kong.”

Hong Kong has allocated HK$1.66 billion (S$270 million) to reviving tourism in the city in 2026, a 35 per cent jump from 2025. Three-quarters of that amount targets attracting more long-haul premium and foreign business travellers, in part by boosting the city’s meetings-and-events pipeline.