To welcome individual Guangdong travellers to Hong Kong, the Tourism Board will offer Octopus cards with $88 value to the first 4,000 visitors from Dongguan, Foshan, Jiangmen and Zhongshan.

The board's Deputy Executive Director Grace Lee said those applying for Frequent Individual Traveller visas will start making their trips to Hong Kong from early August.

The board will deploy additional staff at major border crossing points to offer help to Guangdong visitors.

Staff will hand out Welcome Packs including a HK Welcomes You! visitors' guide, a Welcome Passport offering an array of special discounts and privileges, and a special Be a Smart Shopper leaflet published in simplified Chinese, which provides useful shopping and dining tips.

The board has made 15,000 Welcome Passports and 65,000 leaflets available to travel agents from the four cities for local distribution.

Information on sightseeing tours and suggested itineraries for individual travellers has been uploaded to the board's website and a dedicated website (visitgd.com).

To facilitate the distribution of Hong Kong tourism information, the board plans to open an office in Guangzhou, Ms Lee said, adding that an application has already been made to Mainland authorities.