MR YIU SI-WING (in Cantonese): President, first of all, I thank Mr SHIU Ka-fai for proposing this motion on "Stimulating internal demand and opening up new visitor sources" for debate. A key point of the original motion is to provide additional tourism facilities, so as to open up new visitor sources for the benefit of the overall economy of Hong Kong. As we all know, Hong Kong is principally a service-based economy. In 2014, the service sector accounted for as much as 93% of the Gross Domestic Product ("GDP") of Hong Kong, which was far higher than other developed economies in Asia. Despite the need for Hong Kong to be restructured into a diversified economy, I believe the service sector in Hong Kong will, for a certain period of time, continue to take up a significant percentage share and steer the direction of economic development in Hong Kong.

Tourism is the pillar of the service sector. Although the tourism industry makes a direct contribution of only 5% to GDP and employs 7% of the working population, the ripple effect is considerable. For example, such industries as retail, catering and transport mentioned in the original motion can be affected by the tourism industry. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, tourism indirectly contributes as much as 16.8% to GDP in Hong Kong and employs a workforce of 560 000, accounting for 14.7% of the total working population. In recent years, given the global economic stability, transport convenience and comprehensive tourism facilities, outbound travel has become a habit of the general public. The rapid economic growth in the Mainland in recent years has increased the desire of the nationals to travel abroad, and tourism can be regarded as a sunrise industry. Therefore, I agree to the view of the original motion that the development of tourism should be made the key for stimulating internal demand.

In 2017, Hong Kong recorded a total of 58.5 million visitor arrivals, an increase of 3.2% over the previous year, and the number of overnight visitors was even up by more than 5%. The main reasons are the fewer incidents of Mainland visitors being treated impolitely in Hong Kong in the past two years and also additional resources provided by the Government for promoting tourism with local characteristics, thus enabling the local tourism industry to reverse the declining trend in the past two years and ride on the upswing again.

This year, with the commissioning of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge ("HZMB") and the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link ("XRL"), opportunities will abound for the tourism industry. In future, a population of over 300 million covered by the five-hour traffic circle between Hong Kong and the Mainland will be a visitor source market with spending power and potentials. Besides, transport convenience will enable overseas visitors to travel via Hong Kong to the nearby areas through multi-destination travel and this will facilitate the growth of overnight visitors.

Having said that, we cannot neglect the pitfalls and challenges in future. With regard to the pitfalls, last year there were over 30 million same-day visitor arrivals, accounting for more than 50% of the total number of visitors, while overseas visitors accounted for only 24% of the overall visitor arrivals. This structure of visitor sources is unfavourable to the healthy development of the tourism industry in Hong Kong. In respect of challenges, our competitiveness targeting visitors with high spending power remains inadequate; the Ocean Park and the Hong Kong Disneyland ("Disneyland") face direct competition from the ocean park in Hengqin and the Shanghai Disneyland respectively; and in respect of cruise travel, we face competition from Nansha in Guangzhou and the Prince Bay in Shekou.

In respect of tourism support facilities, the high occupancy rate and room rates of hotels will affect the desire of overseas visitors to make bookings with hotels. The persistent shortage of parking spaces for coaches and the difficulties encountered in employing drivers will affect the service quality of travel agencies. The lack of large-scale convention and exhibition venues in Hong Kong will limit the development of Meetings, Incentive, Conventions and Exhibitions ("MICE") travel. While the local natural scenic spots and country parks have characteristics, the varying conditions for visitor reception are not conducive to the development of green tourism and in-depth travel.

To address these problems, the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau has formulated the Development Blueprint for Hong Kong's Tourism Industry, summing up the many measures proposed as short, medium and long-term initiatives and providing a timetable for implementation. This is worthy of support. However, the Blueprint mostly contains short-term initiatives, with few medium-term and long-term initiatives, not to mention the lack of innovative ideas and fragmentary division of work among the departments responsible for coordination. For instance, the Kai Tak Development Area and the plan on Lantau are under the purview of the Development Bureau; the West Kowloon Cultural District is the responsibility of the Home Affairs Bureau; the Third-runway System falls under the ambit of the Transport and Housing Bureau; and the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau is only responsible for such areas as the development of Disneyland, convention and exhibition, etc.

While the Blueprint is a paper on the planning of tourism, it is actually a hotchpotch of tourism-related projects currently under the charge of respective Policy Bureaux, without presenting comprehensive views on the development of tourism and overall planning in the long term.

To draw up a paper on planning of the development of tourism, I think the Financial Secretary should make upgrading the tourism industry in the long term the objective and direction of development and formulate specific targets for infrastructure and service standards. The support of various Policy Bureaux should be entailed, and the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau should be made responsible for coordinating and overseeing the implementation of the initiatives. This way, better results will be achieved. Since the Blueprint has already been formulated now, I hope the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development will, under controlled circumstances, complete the short-term initiatives in accordance with the plan made by the Bureau as soon as possible, so that the development of tourism industry in Hong Kong can scale new heights.

Regarding the contents of the Blueprint, I have the following suggestions: First, it is necessary to upgrade the transit function of the Hong Kong International Airport ("HKIA") by all means, in order to consolidate its position as a regional aviation hub. Over the years, HKIA has been known for wide-ranging choices of international routes, comprehensive matching facilities and competitive airfares, and has become an important transit stop for both overseas and domestic visitors. In tandem with economic development in the Mainland, airports on the Mainland have actively developed their international routes, and Hong Kong is facing competition from them. Take the Baiyun Airport in Guangzhou as an example. In 2011, 59% of HKIA's direct routes were also served by the Baiyun Airport, and in 2015, the figure rose to 68%, showing increasingly fierce competition in the region. Even though HKIA faces competition from the nearby areas, the commissioning of HZMB and XRL will open up more visitor sources for HKIA. The Airport Authority Hong Kong is going to invest $3 billion in the development of a transit terminal to provide seamless air transit services for passengers transiting via Hong Kong who arrived by bus through HZMB.

Given the imminent commissioning of HZMB and the fact that the completion of the transit terminal will take some time, I think we can no longer wait. In the interim, the authorities can consider taking short-term measures to prevent the loss of transit passengers to other airports. For example, is it possible to make use of the existing facilities at the SkyPier to allow some transit passengers arriving by bus through HZMB to go through customs clearance and the check-in process at SkyPier direct? This can provide convenience to these transit passengers while achieving diversion of visitors. This can ease the pressure of people flow and transport on the main passenger terminals, thereby laying a foundation for the services of the transit terminal in future.

Second, developing quality green tourism by upgrading infrastructure development. In recent years, the traditional tourism attractions in Hong Kong have faced huge challenges. To enhance our competitiveness, it is necessary for the Government to continuously inject a large amount of funds for the purpose. Take Disneyland as an example. The Government will have to inject $10.9 billion in the next five years. Hong Kong has rich natural resources, and green tourism, which has been the talk of the town in recent years, should be made a key area for development. However, in country parks and outlying islands with conditions for developing green tourism, the facilities are inadequate as there is obviously a shortage of facilities such as water and electricity supply, accommodation, toilets and transport, and as a result, visitors' experience is far from good.

In this connection, I suggest that the Government can select some trial points and in collaboration with the districts and investors, appropriately develop tourism resources in country parks and outlying islands on the premise of not compromising ecological conservation. In recent years, the development of small towns with characteristics to attract tourists has become popular in the Mainland. These towns are developed with government investment in infrastructure development and at the same time, experienced corporations are also attracted there. This has enhanced the receiving capacity and standard of management of these small towns and facilitated the development of green tourism with characteristics in rural areas. The new generation of small towns with characteristics provide stylish accommodation and catering services to meet the needs of different classes. I think Hong Kong can consider developing green tourism with reference drawn from the way that small towns with characteristics are developed in the Mainland, with a view to promoting tourism in the countryside and outlying islands using a top-down approach.

I believe it is only when tourism in Hong Kong is unique that it can rise above the fierce competition in the region, and only in this way can it continue to play a vitally important role in the service sector in Hong Kong.

President, I so submit.