Chief Executive John Lee on Saturday welcomed the news that the central government is adding eight more mainland cities, all provincial capitals, to a solo traveller scheme that will allow more mainland residents from remote areas to visit Hong Kong.

This came as Beijing announced that eight more cities, namely Taiyuan of Shanxi province, Hohhot of Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Harbin of Heilongjiang, Lhasa of Tibet, Lanzhou of Gansu, Xining of Qinghai, Yinchuan of Ningxia, and Urumqi of Xinjiang, will be covered under the “Individual Visit Scheme” – bringing the total number of cities under the scheme to 59.

The scheme allows travellers from the mainland to visit and stay in Hong Kong and Macau on an individual basis, instead of on tour groups, for no more than seven days at a time. Residents from the eight cities could apply to visit the SARs from May 27th.

“All these eight mainland provincial capitals have huge populations and strong economic growth, and are cities with high levels of consumption,” the chief executive said.

“Such a further expansion means that all mainland provincial capitals are now covered under the scheme, and it will significantly help revive the economic activities of the city’s tourism, retail, catering, and hospitality sectors, while promoting the two-way exchanges between residents from Hong Kong and these provincial capitals,” he added.

Meanwhile, the city’s tourism chief, Kevin Yeung, said the SAR will soon ramp up tourism promotion works in these cities, and launch new tour routes and products to woo travellers – in the face of changing tourism patterns.

“In May and June alone, a series of large-scale events are scheduled in Hong Kong, including the Cheung Chau Bun Festival, Buddha’s Birthday Carnival, Le French May, Chinese Culture Festival, as well as the Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Races,” he said.

“We look forward to having more visitors from different cities to explore Hong Kong in depth,” he added.

Timothy Chui, the executive director of Hong Kong Tourism Association, said these eight cities aren’t the largest mainland cities, but are growing strongly and their residents could be enticed by the SAR’s vibrant retail sector.

“Residents from these cities may well not have travelled much outside their regions, so there’s more of a chance they could have higher demand in terms of travelling [to other regions] or for shopping,” he said.

Tourism sector lawmaker Perry Yiu agreed about the consumer potential from the eight mainland cities, noting that most of these cities have an average per capita GDP of 100,000 yuan.

But he warned that the SAR must provide more transport routes to these regions to spur tourism growth.

“Even if we don’t have direct flights to these cities yet, they can use the high-speed rail to travel here, [but] this could push us to open up more airline routes with these cities. Some airlines have already been doing that,” he said.

Beijing earlier expanded the scheme in February to add tourists from Xian and Qingdao.

The latest expansion came just two days after Xia Baolong, the director of the Hong Kong and Macau Office, told the city’s tourism chief that Hong Kong must further tap into the city’s rich tourism resources to revitalise offerings amid “profound changes” in the tourism industry.