The tourism sector accounts for about 4.5 per cent of Hong Kong's gross domestic product and employs around 260,000 people.
Mr Cheng was speaking hours before the government announced relief measures worth HK$137.5 billion to help businesses and people crippled by the coronavirus outbreak to stay on their feet. In a bid to stamp out the disease Covid-19 caused by the virus, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has already imposed tough restrictions, including banning all tourist arrivals and prohibiting gatherings of more than four people.
The city's tourist arrivals plunged 96.4 per cent year on year in February to 199,123 visitors, the latest data shows, compared with a 52.7 per cent year-on-year drop in January. The number of mainland visitors fell 97.8 per cent year on year in February to 98,804.The drop in tourism helped to send retail sales plunging by a record 44 per cent in February from a year earlier. Sales of jewellery, watches, clocks and valuable gifts, which rely heavily on mainland tourists, plunged 78.
"We have experience of ups and downs in Hong Kong during different crises. Obviously this one is the most severe that we have ever encountered," Mr Cheng said.
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