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Survey Findings on Views about the Individual Visit Scheme Released by Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at CUHK
A telephone survey was conducted from 21 to 26 March 2014 by Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong to gauge public views about the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS). 880 respondents aged 18 or above were successfully interviewed, with a response rate of 46.1%. The sampling error is + or –3.30% at a confidence level of 95%.
Major findings are summarized as follows:
In the current survey, while over three-fifths (61.1%) of 880 respondents said that visitors under IVS brought inconvenience to their everyday lives, 37.7% reported they did not experience inconvenience. Among the former group of respondents, 36.6% reported a low level of inconvenience caused by IVS, 35.3% found a medium level, and 27.3% expressed a high level. Overall, more than a quarter (27.8%) of the 880 respondents said IVS brought more benefits to themselves, 43.0% tended to believe that it caused more detriments, and 21.9% were “in-between”.
In terms of the impacts of IVS on Hong Kong, more than two-fifths (45.7%) of the respondents thought IVS as beneficial, 29.1% reported it as detrimental, and 22.4% believed that it brought both benefits and detriments. When the respondents were asked if they perceived that Hong Kong had no more capacity to receive the existing volume of Mainland visitors from IVS, over half of them (53.6%) agreed, 17.2% disagreed, and 27.2% said “in-between”.
Concerning the proposed revision of the IVS, more than three-fifths (63.6%) of the 880 respondents agreed that multiple-entry permit arrangement currently applicable to Shenzhen registered residents should be cancelled, 15.3% disagreed, and 19.6% neither agreed nor disagreed. When being asked if they agreed with the proposal of imposing arrival tax on visitors entering the territory on land so as to control the number of IVS visitors, 37.2% agreed, 43.5% disagreed, and 17.3% indicated “in-between”.
In addition, more than three-fifths (61.8%) of our respondents agreed with setting a quota of IVS visitors, 16.3% disagreed, and one-fifth (20.0%) neither favored nor disfavored. Concerning the view that “As a free port, Hong Kong should not impose any entry restrictions to Mainland visitors under IVS”, 34.9% agreed and 38.7% disagreed. 25.4% said “in-between”.
Finally, while nearly three-fifths (57.2%) of the 880 respondents wanted to reduce the scope of IVS, 4.3% preferred an expansion. 34.9% expected no change.
