The Guangdong residents, numbering 31 million, will be eligible to travel to Hong Kong from May 1; the other 43 million from July 1.

Since last July, when mainland authorities began exempting some travellers from the requirement that they visit Hong Kong in tour groups, more than 1.6 million people from Shanghai, Beijing, and 14 cities in Guangdong, with a total population of 76 million, have visited.

With each visitor spending an average of $5,600, the economic benefit to Hong Kong has been almost $9 billion.

Before yesterday's announcement by the State Council, Hong Kong's Tourism Board had already predicted the number of mainland visitors this year would rise almost a third, to 20.5 million.

Board chairwoman Selina Chow Liang Shuk-yee welcomed the announcement. 'These visitors are our targets in developing ... events and family and weekend travel,' she said.

Secretary for Economic Development and Labour Stephen Ip Shu-kwan said Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa had put a huge effort into fighting for the scheme's extension. He said the three provinces added to the list had spending power similar to that of Guangdong.

Mr Ip dismissed suggestions the extension was another 'gift' from Beijing to pacify a public unhappy about progress towards political reform. He said the scheme had been expanding gradually since its launch to ensure immigration staff could cope with the influx and the city had enough accommodation. 'We have almost 43,000 hotel rooms, which should be enough to cope with [peak flows of] travellers,' he said.

Michael Li Hon-sing, executive director of the Federation of Hong Kong Hotel Owners, said the figure Mr Ip cited included 3,000 new rooms, which would be available this year. He said a further 2,000 rooms would be added in future.

'We will be able to cope with the crowds with more rooms. I think occupancy rates will still stay at about 85 to 90 per cent this year,' he said.

A government survey late last year found mainland solo visitors to Hong Kong with incomes of more than $10,000 a year spent an average of 3.1 days and $5,600.

Charles Ng Kwong-wai, vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Inbound Tour Operators' Association, who is in close contact with mainland agencies, said he would expect the solo-travel scheme to be extended to other wealthy cities, such as Xian, Wuhan and Zhengzhou, in time for National Day.

Hong Kong Retail Management Association executive director Anita Bagaman said shops selling goods such as watches, jewellery, cosmetics and electronic products were likely to see double-digit sales growth as a result of the solo travel scheme's extension, but other parts of the retail sector would not benefit so much.

'The true recovery of the retail industry still depends on domestic consumer spending,' she said.

ALREADY IN THE SCHEME

July 2003 Four Guangdong cities: Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen, Foshan

August Four more Guangdong cities: Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Huizhou

September Beijing, Shanghai

January 2004 Six more Guangdong cities: Shantou, Chaozhou, Meizhou, Zhaoqing, Qingyuan, Yunfu

SCHEDULED TO JOIN

May A last batch of Guangdong cities: Zhanjiang, Yangjiang, Maoming, Shaoguan, Jieyang, Heyuan, Shanwei

July Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi (in Jiangsu). Ningbo, Hangzhou, Taizhou (in Zhejiang). Fuzhou, Quanzhou, Xiamen (in Fujian)