Hong Kong is preparing for a surge of mainland visitors during the Lunar New Year holiday, said Commissioner for Tourism Eva Cheng on Friday.

Cheng said measures are taken to enhance the flow of visitors through immigration checkpoints, increase transport capacity, and boost promotion and information dissemination to tourists on consumer protection and health.

"The measures adopted for National Day Golden Week and Christmas/New Year were effective and demonstrated our capacity in receiving a large volume of visitors," Cheng said.

"We need to make the best possible preparations and will continue with and strengthen those measures that have proven effective. We endeavor to enhance the travel experience of every visitor to Hong Kong," she said.

The measures cover arrangements for immigration clearance at boundary control points; protection of visitors' health; arrangement of facilities; information dissemination; visitors' information service; consumer protection, and co-ordination with Guangdong Province.

"The departments concerned are well-prepared and will flexibly deploy the resources according to different situations," she said.

Cheng said hotels and travel agents have agreed to strengthen their co-ordination and improve the quality of service in the Lunar New Year holiday.

She said Hong Kong side also maintains close liaison with the Guangdong provincial tourism administration to understand more about the visitor flow, so as to help travelers to Hong Kong have a happy visit.

(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2004)