Mainland limits HK visits by Shenzhen residents

Protesters wearing masks shout at mainland Chinese travellers (C) during a demonstration inside a shopping mall in Hong Kong February 15, 2015. Anti-mainland demonstrators on Sunday protested against parallel traders and confronted police, government radio reported. [Photo/Agencies]

Related: What are Shenzhen shoppers buying in Hong Kong?

Individual Visit Scheme was launched in 2003 to lure more mainland tourists to Hong Kong after SARS outbreak. In the following decade, the scheme boosted the industrial development of Hong Kong's tourism, retail, catering, hotel, etc, and created mass jobs for local citizens.

According to statistics from Hong Kong, the number of mainland tourists' trips with the multiple entry permits increased from 4.16 million in 2010 to 14.85 million in 2014, almost quadrupling the figure.

However, complaints have been heard from Hong Kong in recent years, as the mainland tourists favored purchasing smartphones, cosmetics, medicines and luxury goods in the city. Some of the discontent even leads to chaos in some cases.

Zhang Wei, a housewife in Shenzhen, said she had planned to go shopping in Hong Kong in January, but delayed it due to the protests. She has no new plans at present.

The latest data shows an 8.7 percent decline in the number of tourists who visited Hong Kong in March compared with last year, among which, those from the mainland dropped by over 10 percent.

The move is expected to reduce visits to Hong Kong by 4.6 million a year, BBC quoted Goldman Sachs as saying.