Hong Kong shopping centres have recorded growth of up to 50 per cent in footfall, with a 15 per cent bump in business projected for the festive season, aided by a revived multiple-entry visa scheme for Shenzhen residents.
Alan Chan Chung-yee, chief operations officer of Miramar Group, told a radio programme on Tuesday that there had been a 50 per cent increase in foot traffic in the past two weeks at the company’s shopping malls in Tsim Sha Tsui.
“This year is much better. Especially on the shopping centre side where we have changed our tenant … installed many large-scale Christmas decorations, and done a number of promotions involving key opinion leaders and key opinion consumers on the mainland,” he said.
“The footfall of our shopping malls has increased by 50 per cent, which is astonishing … For our tenants, I believe the increase in footfall can be converted to a minimum 15 per cent rise in consumption.”
The visa scheme, which enables Shenzhen residents to make an unlimited number of trips to Hong Kong within a year, was implemented this month as one of several measures rolled out by the central government to help stimulate the city’s economy.
First introduced in 2009, it was replaced by a “one-trip-per-week” arrangement in 2015 before being relaunched in its current form.