China News Service, Guangzhou, February 18th: Business opportunities are surging in the "two-way rush" for the integrated development of culture and tourism in the Greater Bay Area
China News Service reporter Cheng Jingwei
According to Gongbei Customs statistics, seven days before the Spring Festival holiday of the Year of the Dragon, the number of inbound and outbound vehicles at the Zhuhai Highway Port of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge continued to rise. The customs inspected and released a total of 109,000 inbound and outbound vehicles, an increase of 2.5 times compared with the same period last year during the Spring Festival. There were 76,000 single-brand vehicles traveling north to Hong Kong and Macao, accounting for nearly 70%.
With the implementation of the "Hong Kong Cars Going North" and "Macao Cars Going North" policies, the interconnection level of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has been further improved, making it more convenient for Hong Kong and Macao residents to "go north". "Tourist groups, mainly 'family tourists' from Hong Kong and Macao residents, have become the main force traveling through the port during the Spring Festival." said Lin Meihong, political commissar of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Border Inspection Station at Zhuhai Entry-Exit Border Inspection Station.
"Mafengwo" big data shows that the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has become a popular travel destination during the Spring Festival due to its "all-round coverage" of food, beautiful scenery, customs, and culture. According to Guangzhou Guangzhi International Travel Agency, during the eight-day Spring Festival holiday this year, the travel agency's overall orders in the Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau markets have increased significantly, and nearly 100 tour groups are sent out every day within the province.
February 18th coincides with the fifth anniversary of the release of the “Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area”. During the Spring Festival, Hong Kong and Macao residents go north to Guangdong to visit relatives and vacation, and mainland residents go to Hong Kong and Macao for sightseeing. The "two-way travel" craze continues to surge in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Behind this phenomenon is the further accelerated integrated development of the Greater Bay Area and the accelerated formation of a high-quality living circle that is suitable for living, working and traveling.
In the "Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area", expressions related to culture and tourism development are mentioned in many chapters. The planning outline brings huge opportunities to the development of cultural tourism in the Greater Bay Area and further promotes the construction of a world-class tourist destination in the Greater Bay Area.
In the five years since the release of the planning outline, the integrated development of culture and tourism in the Greater Bay Area has reached a new level. Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao have established a joint publicity and promotion mechanism to achieve "attracting tourists to Guangdong" and "attracting tourists to the Bay Area" and polishing the cultural and tourism IP of the Bay Area. At the 2023 Guangdong Culture and Tourism Summer Promotion Conference, a new batch of 10 "one-journey multi-stop" quality routes in the Greater Bay Area were released, further enriching the types and levels of tourism route products in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao.
Last summer, Ms. Li’s family from Beijing embarked on an in-depth tour of the Greater Bay Area through the “Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Linkage Program”. We went to Guangzhou early in the morning to have morning tea and watch Cantonese opera. The next day we visited Shenzhen Nantou Ancient Town and Shekou Old Street, and then entered Hong Kong from Shenzhen Bay. She praised her repeatedly for the multi-stop journey.
Taking regional characteristic culture as the starting point, the urban agglomeration of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has gradually formed a one-stop service for tourism interconnection, cultural linkage, and product and service sharing, and has deepened regional cooperation in terms of developing special tourism projects and innovating coastal tourism formats. For example, Shenzhen took the construction of the China Cruise Tourism Development Experimental Zone as an opportunity to promote the "See the Bay Area from the Sea" tourism project and opened four routes including the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and the Lantau Island Circle in Hong Kong to connect various scenic spots in the Greater Bay Area.
An Ran, director of the Bay Area Economic and Industrial Planning Institute of the China (Shenzhen) Comprehensive Development Research Institute, pointed out that Hong Kong, Macao and the nine cities in the Pearl River Delta have the same culture, close ties, similar folk customs, and complementary advantages. In terms of tourism, whether it is internal circulation or International opening up has obvious geo-humanistic advantages. The two-way travel between Hong Kong, Macao and the Mainland is becoming increasingly popular, and scenes of cultural tourism "Tale of Two Cities" have become the biggest feature of tourism in the Greater Bay Area.
The attractiveness of tourist attractions in the Greater Bay Area continues to increase. On the third day of the Lunar New Year, an indoor ski resort in Huadu, Guangzhou welcomed more than 1,000 tourists from 34 Hong Kong tour groups. Wei Jianyu, marketing director of the ski resort, said that since its opening in June 2019, 60% of the visitors to the ski resort have come from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. "During public holidays such as the Spring Festival, the increase in visits from Hong Kong and Macao tourists is particularly obvious." (End)