Hong Kong, with its unique geographical location, free port policy, and cultural charm that combines Eastern and Western cultures, has become a shopping paradise and tourist destination that people aspire to. Especially since the opening of individual tours for mainland residents to Hong Kong and Macau in 2003, the number of mainland tourists visiting Hong Kong has continued to grow, reaching a record high of 51.04 million in 2018, accounting for 78% of the total number of visitors to Hong Kong. The booming tourism industry has also driven the prosperous development of related industries such as retail, catering, accommodation, and transportation. However, after a long period of rapid development, Hong Kong's tourism and retail industries are facing new challenges. In 2024, the number of visitors to Hong Kong rebounded by 31% year-on-year to 44.5 million. In the past year, although the overall market in Hong Kong has been bustling with people, how to refresh the performance of "Wangcai" has become a concern for all sectors of society under the impressive achievements of "Wangding". As stated by Cheng Dingyi, Director General of the Hong Kong Tourism Board, the changing consumption patterns of tourists require the industry to transform accordingly. In the long run, the structural changes in consumption patterns such as changes in the demand for mainland tourists visiting Hong Kong, the impact of convenient cross-border transportation on tourists' willingness to stay overnight, the rise of cross-border e-commerce transactions in mainland China, and the normalization of Hong Kong citizens' northward consumption have a significant impact on Hong Kong's retail industry, hotel industry, and consumer economy. Therefore, the Hong Kong SAR government has formulated the "Hong Kong Tourism Development Blueprint 2.0", focusing on promoting the healthy and sustainable development of tourism related industries, and consolidating Hong Kong's position as a world-class preferred tourist destination. In the 2025-2026 budget released in February this year, the Hong Kong Financial Secretary also proposed multiple measures to implement the concept of "tourism everywhere". During this year's Spring Festival and May Day holidays, the Hong Kong tourism industry has made efforts to innovate service models, enhance the experience, sense of gain, convenience, and satisfaction of mainland tourists visiting Hong Kong. In the first quarter of this year, the number of visitors to Hong Kong increased by about 7% year-on-year, with mainland tourists accounting for 77%. At the same time, the performance of customers from short distance markets such as Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East has also achieved good results, demonstrating the unique attractiveness of Hong Kong as an international metropolis. The upgrading of Hong Kong's cultural and tourism industry requires continuous efforts and innovation from the SAR government and the industry, as well as strong support from the central government and mainland China. In 2024, the central government introduced a series of measures to benefit Hong Kong: in order to boost Hong Kong's tourism and other related industries, the number of "individual travel" cities from mainland China to Hong Kong and Macao was expanded twice, to 59 cities, covering all provincial capitals in mainland China; The tax-free limit for luggage carried by mainland residents entering Hong Kong and Macau has been increased from RMB 5000 to RMB 12000, further enhancing the shopping experience of mainland residents in Hong Kong and Macau; The implementation of the "one visa, multiple travel" policy for Shenzhen residents traveling to Hong Kong has injected new momentum into Hong Kong's tourism, catering, and retail industries... Hong Kong can seize the opportunity to accelerate its integration into the national development situation and the integration of the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area, continue to attach importance to mainland tourists, especially the surrounding tourist groups in the Greater Bay Area, fully utilize and explore the potential of policies such as "individual travel" and "one visa, multiple travel", and cooperate with high-speed railway ticketing discounts, dynamic ticket prices for popular attractions, artificial intelligence itinerary planning, and steadily promote the "Guangdong car southward" initiative to bring stable customer sources with consumption ability and willingness to Hong Kong. In my opinion, the key to upgrading and revitalizing Hong Kong's tourism and retail industries lies not in simply and repetitively expanding customer sources, but in strengthening planning and coordination, upgrading development models, reshaping their own positioning, and successfully establishing a new consumer ecology that integrates experience, culture, and service. For example, unified planning and optimization of new and old landmarks such as "Symphony of Lights", West Kowloon Cultural District, and Kai Tak Sports Park can be carried out to achieve linkage between tourism, cruise ships, exhibitions, art, and sports events, in order to broaden the boundaries of tourism, recreate consumption scenarios, and promote the upgrading of the tourism industry to high added value; Develop themed tourism products such as characteristic tours, cultural in-depth tours, green hiking tours, offshore exploration tours, medical and health rehabilitation tours, and educational tours to meet the refined, personalized, and customized needs of tourists; By leveraging the reconstruction and upgrading of cross-border logistics and supply chains, we aim to create a "front store, back warehouse" model in a larger geographical dimension, achieving a combination of on-site experience of some goods in Hong Kong, shipment from bonded warehouses in the Greater Bay Area, and 24-hour delivery; By virtue of regional advantages, efforts have been made to attract more tourists from the Belt and Road related countries to visit Hong Kong and the mainland in terms of one-stop, two-way product development, cruise line expansion, etc. Hong Kong has obvious advantages in traditional tourism, including world-class tourist attractions, cuisine, urban management, and transportation systems. Against the backdrop of sustained support from the national policy of favoring Hong Kong and the continuous introduction of relevant promotion measures by the SAR government, if Hong Kong's tourism and retail industries can seize the opportunity and seize the momentum, their operating conditions are expected to gradually improve. When traditional retail spaces transform into carriers of cultural memory, when every expansion of visa programs is accompanied by a leap in service levels, when the development of tourism and retail industries complements and promotes the positioning of international financial centers, international innovation and technology centers, Sino foreign cultural and artistic exchange centers, international trade centers, international shipping centers, international aviation hubs, etc., Hong Kong will surely further polish its world-class preferred tourist destination as a "golden calling card" in the process of qualitative change from "traffic" to "retention". (New Society)