Cross-Border Consumption and Regional Integration: Understanding the Drivers and Economic Implications of Hong Kong Residents’ Northbound Mobility
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54097/p4csf845Keywords:
Cross-border consumption, consumer mobility, regional integration, experience economy, Greater Bay AreaAbstract
This study examines the rapid expansion of northbound consumption among Hong Kong residents within the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). Drawing on government statistics, industry reports, and recent survey evidence, it analyses how regional integration, transport connectivity, border facilitation, and payment interoperability have reshaped cross-border consumer mobility. The findings suggest that northbound consumption has evolved from occasional leisure travel into a routinised, experience-oriented practice embedded in everyday life. Economic incentives, experiential preferences, social-network effects, and institutional connectivity together explain the increasing frequency and spatial diversification of cross-border trips. By integrating perspectives on consumer arbitrage, the experience economy, regional integration, and multi-sited consumption, the paper contributes to scholarship on cross-border consumption and urban-regional integration while clarifying the implications of northbound mobility for Hong Kong’s business competitiveness within the GBA.
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