{"id":567043,"date":"2026-07-25T04:25:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T04:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/567043\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T04:25:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T04:25:37","slug":"hongkongers-increase-cross-border-shopping-splurges-spending-data-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/567043\/","title":{"rendered":"Hongkongers increase cross-border shopping splurges, spending data shows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Even as local retail spending remains resilient, Hong Kong consumers are shopping more across the border in mainland China, drawn by lower prices and wider adoption of digital payments, according to data from payment giant UnionPay International.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Offline UnionPay card spending in mainland China by Hong Kong residents rose nearly 30 per cent year on year in the first half of 2026, while online and digital transactions recorded even stronger growth, data released on Thursday showed.<\/p>\n<p>The trend reflected deepening integration of the consumer markets in Hong Kong and mainland China, supported by seamless digital payments, improved connectivity and increasingly cross-border lifestyles across the <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/greater-bay-area?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Greater Bay Area<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cMainland China remains a major hotspot, driven by price differentials and changing consumer habits,\u201d said Roger Lee, vice-president for Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan at UnionPay International.<\/p>\n<p>Yet the company also remained \u201ccautiously optimistic about local consumption\u201d, he added, citing a <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/hong-kong\/hong-kong-economy\/article\/3359172\/hong-kong-retail-sales-grow-79-may-extending-winning-streak-13-months?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">10 per cent year-on-year increase<\/a> in Hong Kong offline spending through June.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">To further tap cross-border demand, UnionPay announced an arrangement allowing Hong Kong residents to enjoy China\u2019s national consumer goods trade-in subsidy programme.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Hong Kong shoppers travelling to the mainland could now receive government subsidies of up to 20,000 yuan (US$2,954) without needing to open a mainland bank account or obtain a mainland mobile phone number, the company said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even as local retail spending remains resilient, Hong Kong consumers are shopping more across the border in mainland&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,114,239323,8184,113,15841,240,61,60,582,35904,22471,1196,239325,239324,541,2073,239322,239326],"class_list":["post-567043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-china","tag-cross-border","tag-digital-payments","tag-economy","tag-greater-bay-area","tag-hong-kong","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-japan","tag-macau","tag-mainland-china","tag-middle-east","tag-northeast-asia","tag-roger-lee","tag-south-korea","tag-taiwan","tag-unionpay-card","tag-unionpay-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}