MR YIU SI-WING (in Cantonese): President, the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong ("TIC") has put in place a regular registration system for inbound tourist groups from the Mainland. If the number of tourist groups reaches a certain level, TIC will advise the tourism trade to adopt diversion measures, with a view of minimizing their impact on people's daily lives and traffic in the districts, especially To Kwa Wan. District Council members have recently told me that the improvements have been made, but I know that many tourist groups have not registered with TIC and the situation has gone out of control. We call these kinds of tourist groups "unauthorized tour groups". During the recent 1 May Golden Week, TIC sent inspectors to inspect the various tourism districts and found that the tourist guides of 41% of tour groups did not wear tourist guide passes and tour information was not displayed on the front part of tourist coaches. Even if information was displayed, the licence number of the relevant travel agency or the number of the tour group were not displayed, making it impossible to trace the persons in charge of such unauthorized tour groups. In the face of such out-of-control situations, no matter how properly the trade acts, these unauthorized tour groups are still potential hazards to the traffic and daily lives of people in various districts.

May I ask the Secretary if anything can be done to tackle the problem of unauthorized tour groups before the establishment of the Travel Industry Authority ("TIA")?

 

SECRETARY FOR COMMERCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (in Cantonese): President, I thank Mr YIU for his supplementary question. As Mr YIU has said, in respect of the various problems caused to the districts, they are, to a great extent, caused by zero-fare or low-fare tour groups, and TIC will continue to step up inspection. As TIA to be established in future will have the power to carry out inspection and investigation, I believe that TIA will do a better job in inspecting various tour groups.

 

MR YIU SI-WING (in Cantonese): I was asking about the specific corresponding measures to be taken by the Government before the establishment of TIA and the Secretary has not answered my question.

 

SECRETARY FOR COMMERCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (in Cantonese): Perhaps I will provide some additional information. The specific measures include the Registered Shops Scheme involving inbound tour groups. I believe Mr YIU is also aware that the problems caused by certain tour groups in various districts are related to the inappropriate management of people and vehicular flows. Hence, TIC requires registered shops to submit a plan for TIC's approval on the management of tourists flows.