One country, two strata: Implications of social and cultural conflicts of Chinese outbound tourism to Hong Kong

Abstract

The introduction of the Individual Visitor Scheme (IVS) in 2003 has been regarded as a pivotal milestone of tourism development in Hong Kong. Introduced with the policy aim of invigorating the ailing local economy suffering from the impacts of an epidemic, the IVS has also sparked exponential rise of Chinese outbound tourists to Hong Kong, and has been assuming growing significance in local tourism development. Notwithstanding the benefits that the tourism industry, as well as Hong Kong as a destination at large, can gain from the IVS, there have also been a number of controversies over the negative social impacts brought about by the IVS that have recently been widely exposed in the mass media, leading to calls for the reform and even the rescinding of the IVS. This spotlight examines the social and culture conflicts of the IVS through the integration of key attributes that are conceptualized and established in general tourism social impacts studies, as well as the unique economic, social and cultural contexts of the IVS.