No flower stays red for 100 days, so do water in time

迷你倉最平 　　The National Day Golden Week is traditionally a peak season for mainland tourists visiting Hong Kong, but this year's market is full of uncertain factors. To the retail business, the mainland environment keeps changing. The sector should know that "No flower stays red for 100 days" and often do the "soil changing" as well as "cutting" to nurture new life.　　Retail business during this year's Labour Day Golden Week maintained its growth, but not as strong as in the past years. How it will fare during the National Day holidays will be seen in a few days. The initial response is that this year's market is stable but no booming momentum can be seen.　　In the first half of the year, the momentum of growth in the mainland weakened. It picked up dramatically in the third quarter. The growth is estimated to be around 7.5 percent to date. Though this growth rate is not as fast and strong as several years ago, the actual figures are still considerable. The local retail industry felt strong loss in momentum that must have been affected not only by macroeconomic factors.This year's Golden Week comes with many uncertain factors　　In order to divert the flow of people, the mainland has shortened the two Golden Week holidays, breaking them up into parts and reducing their effect of people flocking into Hong Kong. At the same time, the Individual Visit Scheme has been implemented for many years, so many tourists are not restricted to visiting Hong Kong during the Golden Weeks. They have all brought a relieving effect to the congestion.　　As for this Golden Week, there are still other individual factors causing a drop in people flow. First is the mainland's implementation of its "Tourism Law", restricting the operation of low-priced tours, so the number of people joining group tours to Hong Kong naturally drops. As the new law was just implemented, its effects surfaced immediately. Low-priced tours meet their travel expenses through forced shopping, which is not a healthy practice. After consumers get used to it gradually, the effects of the "Tourism Law" should be reduced.　　Other factors that affect the market include the mainland's gradual easing of restrictions on overseas tours for residents. Some of the tourists with higher spending power may choose farther places for their holidays. Another factor is that since the SAR government implemented the milk powder ban, the number of parallel goods traders or users who come over Hong Kong during the long holidays to buy milk powder falls sharply, which naturally makes the people flow in the streets not as congested as imagined.　　As the mainland keeps developing, its spending power continues to rise. The total number of people going overseas to spend their holidays becomes enormous. Although there are many uncertain factors, the number of visitors coming to Hong Kong is still considerable. But the various factors that appear this year show that the market changes very quickly. Take the parallel goods traders who come to Hong Kong to buy milk powder as an example. Just one government restriction is enough to cause a sharp turn in the market. After the impact of the milk powder ban, the mainland seems determined to strongly support its own milk industry. This can be seen from the strengthened mergers and acquisitions of several state-owned enterprises as well as serious crackdown on overseas enterprises manipulating milk powder prices. In time, mainland parallel goods traders may not need to come to Hong Kong for milk powder.Expanding capacity and value-adding ensure fruit every year　　After the SARS outbreak in 2003, the mainland opened up the Individual Visit Scheme pushing Hong Kong's tourism industry into a high growth period. After nearly a decade of development, the travel retail business in the SAR is faced with a bottleneck in reception capacity, leading to sharp rises in hotel rates. At the same time, shop rents and public transport facilities come under pressure. On the outside, market surges with changes, increasing uncertain factors for the industry.　　As a service-oriented economy, travel retail will still be a pillar industry that is hard to replace in the foreseeable future. If Hong Kong wants to continue harvesting from this large tree, it must enhance planning and actively increase its capacity so that tourists will not affect the daily life of the citizens and increase friction. At the same time, it should study how to provide more value-added services to ensure related industries can branch out, leafy, flowering and bearing fruit every year.Published in the Sing Tao Daily on October 2Vocabularytraditionally (adv) —— 傳統上momentum (n) —— 勢頭dramatically (adv) —— 戲劇性地considerable (adj) —— 可觀的congestion (n) —— 擁塞surface (v) —— 浮現ease (v) —— 放鬆merger (n) —— 合併acquisition (n) —— 收購foreseeable (adj) —— 可預見的Useful Termspeak season —— 旺季macroeconomic factor —— 宏觀因素healthy practice —— 健康做法parallel goods trader —— 水貨客state-owned enterprise —— 國企Did you know?　　The National Day Golden Week lost some of its glitter on the first day.Some companies reported a 30 to 40 percent drop in business due to the mainland's ban on low-priced tours. Under the law, which came into effect on Tuesday, extremely low or zero-priced tours are banned and travel agencies that force customers to make purchases can be fined up to 300,000 yuan (HK$380,085), according to Xinhua News Agency. Travel Industry Council chairman Michael Wu Siu-ieng said there were 260 mainland tours to Hong Kong on Tuesday. It was about 30 percent less than last October 1. But he expected that there would still be a three to four percent increase in the overall number of tourists by the time the Golden Week ends on October 7.Despite the higher tour prices, mainland visitors welcomed the new law.Q&A1. The word _____ in the second paragraph is the opposite of "dying".2. The effects of the new law surfaced _____.3. In the passage, the word _____ means "running".4. Hong Kong's tourism industry went into a high growth period because the mainland ____________________________________________.5. According to the last paragraph, Hong Kong should provide more _____ services.Answers1. booming2. immediately3. operation4. opened up the Individual Visit Scheme5. value-added翻譯︰George花無百日紅 灌溉要及時　　「十． 一」黃金周傳統是旅客來港高峰期，但今年市道充滿不明朗因素，對零售業來說，內地環境不斷變化，業界應謹記者 廘L百日紅的道理，時時換泥插枝，培育新的生機。　　今年「五． 一」黃金周，零售生意保持增長，幅度則未如往年強勁。國慶假期表現如何，仍要看未來幾日成績。初步反應是今年市道平穩，卻也未見紅紅火火的勢頭。　　上半年內地增長勢頭減慢，第三季有戲劇性回升，估計迄今為止增長應保持百分之七點五左右。雖然這個增速沒有幾年前的迅猛，實際數字仍屬相當可觀。本地零售業感覺勁度放緩，相信不止受宏觀因素影響。今年黃金周 多不明朗因素　　內地為了疏導人流，把兩個黃金周的假期縮短，化整為零，削弱了潮湧來港的效應。與此同時，自由行實施多年，不少旅客已不限於黃金周訪港，都產生了疏導人流的效果。　　至於今個黃金周，還有個別因素造成人流下降，首先是內地實施《旅遊法》，限制了平價團營運，報團來港數目自然回落。由於新例剛剛推行，影響即時浮現。平價團以強逼購物支撐行程支出，做法並不健康，當消費者慢慢習慣後，《旅遊法》的影響應該可以減輕。　　其他左右市道的因素，包括內地開放居民到海外旅遊漸趨寬鬆，部分高消費力的旅客，可能選擇到較遠的地方度假，還有一個因素，是自從政府實施限奶令後，趁長假來港購買奶粉的水貨客或用家，數目為之大減，自然令市面人流暫時沒有想像中擠擁。　　內地持續發展，消費力不斷上升，外出度假的總體人口日見龐大，雖然有眾多不明朗因素，來港旅客數字仍然非常可觀。不過，從今年出現的各種因素顯示，市場變化非常快速，就以水貨客來港購買奶粉為例，當局一項規管已可令市道急轉。經過限奶令衝擊後，內地似乎已立下決心，大力扶持本土奶業，這從多家國企加強併購，以及嚴打外企操控奶粉價格可見一斑。假以時日，內地水貨客或許不再需要來港買奶粉。擴容兼增值 確保年年結果　　○三年沙士後，內地開放自由行，令本地旅遊業進入高增長期，經過接近十年的發展，旅遊零售業在本地遇到接待能力的瓶頸，令到酒店房租大幅上升，同時商鋪租金、公共交通設施出現壓力；對外則有市場不斷湧現的變化，增加了行業不穩定因素。　　作為服務型經濟，旅遊零售在可見將來仍是難以替代的支柱產業，港人希望能從這棵大樹繼續收成，就必須加強規劃，積極擴容，避免旅客來港影響市民日常生活，增加摩擦；同時研究如何提供更多增值服務，確保相關產業枝繁葉茂，年年開花結果。刊於十月二日《星島日報》儲存