Tourist cities must work together, officials told

Sound bites

"Hong Kong and Beijing have entered a new period beyond signing cooperative programs on tourism, with an eye to more interaction and cooperation.

"Currently, the passenger flows from Beijing to Hong Kong remain high, while Hong Kong plans to pursue joint development in tourism with Beijing. Taking advantage of its well-developed traffic system, Hong Kong would attract foreign visitors first, then direct these tourism flows into cities on the mainland such as Beijing and Shanghai.

"Since Hong Kong has had tourism authorities since 1957, we would like to use our advanced experience in tourism management in other cities to fuel their growth, thus motivating mutual development."

Becky Ip, deputy executive director of the Hong Kong Tourism Board

"Residents from mainland cities have been the majority of our visitors in Macao in recent years, accounting for at least 80 percent of the total.

"The short distance, easy access to permits for Macao and higher incomes have been the major reasons for the increasingly larger passenger flow to Macao.

"Though more passengers from foreign countries are willing to visit the city, the growth rate is smaller than that of domestic passengers in Macao.

"We will take the good opportunity presented by the World Tourism Cities Federation and the upcoming APEC meeting of top tourist officials to promote the city to the world, to diversify the sources of visitors."

William Wong, representative in Beijing of the tourism group from the Macao Special Administration Region