Hong Kong Tourism Board: Actively Alleviating the Travel Industry's Manpower Shortage and Digital Transformation Challenges to Build More Attractive Travel Brands

The Zhitong Finance App learned that today, the Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Hong Kong Administration for Culture, Sports and Tourism, Law Suk-pui, made a written response to a Legislative Council member's question on promoting tourism development, saying that the various tourism promotions launched by the Hong Kong Tourism and Development Board in the past three years have received a positive response, not only successfully showcasing Hong Kong's recovery after the pandemic, but also boosting the lively atmosphere in the city and attracting visitors. The “Hong Kong Tourism Industry Development Blueprint 2.0” proposes the overall work direction and strategy for the development of Hong Kong's tourism industry over the next five years. The Hong Kong Culture, Sports and Tourism Board will maintain close cooperation with relevant policy bureaux/departments and implementing agencies to actively mitigate the challenges of manpower shortages and digital transformation in the tourism industry, with a view to improving service levels so that travelers can experience Hong Kong's warm hospitality, and thus create a more attractive travel brand.

The effectiveness of the Hong Kong Tourism Board's tourism promotion work cannot be assessed entirely in quantitative terms. However, the Tourism and Development Board will set different indicators on the nature of its promotion and activities, such as website views, number of social media contacts, global media exposure, participants' satisfaction with the event, whether they will recommend it to family and friends, and whether they will participate again to measure the effectiveness. The various tourism promotions launched by the Tourism and Development Board in the past three years have received positive feedback. They have not only successfully showcased Hong Kong's recovery after the pandemic, but also boosted the lively atmosphere in the city, created more reasons for travelers to visit Hong Kong, and attracted them to visit. The results were in line with the expected goals.

The Hong Kong Culture, Sports and Tourism Board (CST) announced the “Hong Kong Tourism Industry Development Blueprint 2.0” (“Blueprint 2.0”) on December 30, 2024, outlining the overall direction of Hong Kong's tourism development from 2025 to 2030. “Blueprint 2.0” proposes four major development positions and four development strategies, covering the four major areas of product development, customer expansion, technological innovation and service enhancement to promote the prosperous and healthy development of Hong Kong's tourism industry. “Blueprint 2.0” also proposes 133 specific actions and measures conducive to tourism development, with a view to stimulating the vitality of the tourism market through multi-HKD strategies, deepening the quality and content of tourism products and services, and further boosting the development of Hong Kong's tourism industry. The implementation time and associated performance indicators for each measure, classified as short (within 3 years), medium (3 to 6 years), and long term (6 years or more), are set out in “Blueprint 2.0”.

The Hong Kong Culture, Sports and Tourism Board has been in touch with the tourism-related industry, including the Tourism and Development Board, the Hong Kong Travel Industry Council (HKTB), the Travel Industry Association (HKMA), the Hong Kong Hotel Association, and the Hong Kong Hotel Owners Association to understand the current human resources situation in the industry and explore possible countermeasures to meet short-, medium- and long-term human resources needs.

“Blueprint 2.0” proposes the overall work direction and strategy for Hong Kong's tourism development over the next five years. One of the development strategies is to comprehensively improve the service quality and support of the tourism industry and cultivate talents, covering 31 measures.

According to the relevant strategy, the Hong Kong Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau will continue to maintain close communication with universities and colleges providing hospitality and travel-related courses in Hong Kong, encourage colleges and universities to cooperate with the industry to host career fairs and lectures, enhance young people's understanding of the development prospects of the tourism industry, make good use of various travel volunteer/youth ambassador schemes, train young people interested in joining the tour guide profession, and will continue to actively explore with relevant policy bureaus the further expansion of the “Vocational Education Graduates Stay in Hong Kong Program” to courses related to hotel management, tourism and hospitality.

Meanwhile, the Government will allocate HK$100 million to fund the training and development of tourism workers in 2022 to 2023. The Tourism Authority will continue to use funding to support industry training and introduce measures to attract more talents to participate in the tourism industry and enhance the professional level of the industry, including studying the talent needs of tour guides, tour leaders and travel agents in different job categories through data collection to develop more detailed and comprehensive human resources strategies, supporting college students to obtain tour guide licences, reviewing and streamlining the content and requirements of licensing examinations and pre-trial training courses, and launching a guide guide bridging tour guide scheme and a “special special license” program to increase the supply of professional tour guides in the market., improve The supply and demand of talent in the industry.

Furthermore, the Hong Kong Labour Department will implement the “Supplementary Labour Optimization Plan” on September 4, 2023 to alleviate the shortage of manpower in various industries (including the accommodation service industry). Hospitality employers who are in fact unable to hire suitable personnel in Hong Kong can apply to import workers at or below the level of technician through the “Supplementary Labor Optimization Scheme”. As of March 31, 2025, the “Supplementary Labor Optimization Plan” approved employers in the lodging service industry to import 1,633 workers, mainly for positions such as housekeepers, waiters, and receptionists.

In terms of assisting the digital transformation of the industry, the Government allocated a total of HK$70 million to the Travel Council in the 2016 to 2017, 2018 to 2019 and 2023 to 2024 to launch the “Travel Agent IT Development Matching Fund Scheme” to provide funding in the form of equal matchmaking to each eligible travel agency. The funding project covers improving efficiency and productivity through big data, digital marketing, IT system security, development of mobile apps and website optimization to encourage the industry to use technological upgrading and transformation, and enhance the ability of travel agencies to expand their business through IT.