President, I move that the motion as printed on the Agenda be passed. 
 
President, looking around the world, we can see that most developing or developed and advanced countries have made tourism a key industry to drive their economy forward. The reason is that tourism actually has merits that cannot be replaced by other industries. 
 
From the economic point of view, the tourism industry has a wide coverage and helps boost the economic development of a place. According to the statistics of the World Tourism Organization, there are up to 110 relevant industries that can be influenced, driven and promoted by modern tourism. Tourism spending contributes over 90% to the accommodation sector, over 80% to air and rail passenger services, and over 40% to the catering and retail sectors. Every dollar in tourism receipts can generate an increase of $4.3 in the revenue of the relevant industries. 
 
On the promotion of employment, every additional practitioner in the tourism industry can bring along 4.2 additional job opportunities in the relevant industries and particularly, it is directly helpful to the employment of the grassroots as a large number of low-skilled workers can be absorbed to work in the service sectors. 
 
From the environmental point of view, tourism is comparatively less polluting, and through the conservation of natural resources and precious cultural heritage, it can help promote education on environmental protection. 
 
From the publicity point of view, visits by tourists can enhance the influence of the place in the international community and help attract investors. 
 
President, in Hong Kong, the tourism industry is one of the four traditional major economic pillars. Over the past decade or so, in spite of economic recession brought about by the SARS outbreak and the financial tsunami, the tourism industry managed to maintain steady growth. 
 
According to the statistics of the Census and Statistics Department, in the decade between 2001 and 2011, the share of tourism in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) almost doubled from 2.3% to 4.5%, with an average growth rate of 13.8%. These two figures have increased at a rate exceeding the growth rate of the other three pillar industries, also far higher than the growth of the GDP.  
On the promotion of employment, the number of employees in the tourism industry recorded an average increase of 8.6% over the decade, compared to an average increase of a mere 2.9% in the total workforce in Hong Kong during the same period. As far as we understand it, the tourism-related industries in Hong Kong have taken on 620 000 employees, accounting for one sixth of the working population. 
 
In Hong Kong, tourism is still a sunrise industry, and it is an industry that can persistently develop in Hong Kong and cannot be relocated elsewhere. For some traditional industries, investors will relocate their investment to the nearby areas as long as cheaper labour, lower rental and policy concessions are provided there. Tourism resources are the only exception as it is impossible for these resources to be taken away and so, they will continuously contribute to the local economy. 
 
President, looking around the neighbouring regions, we will see that whether in Macao, Taiwan, Singapore or the Mainland, their governments have all spared no effort in developing the tourism industry as a means to drive the economy forward. The tourism departments in these places have more powers and functions, and they are responsible for a range of work including the formulation of the overall policy on tourism, regulation of the tourism industry, co-ordination of the development of tourism resources, and so on. Compared to Hong Kong, the biggest difference is that one of the duties of these tourism departments is to assume a leading role and make planning for tourism. 
 
But let us look at Hong Kong. If we review the development of tourism over the past decade, we will see that we have mostly relied on the Mainland's policy on the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS), passively accepting Mainland tourists swarming to the territory in large numbers. This has led to conflicts and even resistance against Mainland tourists in some districts due to problems in their coping capacity. President, many countries or regions, including the European and American countries, all wish to attract Mainland tourists in order to promote their economy and tourism but in Hong Kong, there have recently been voices expressing concern about the number of Mainland tourists increasing too rapidly and a series of incidents has also happened. In fact, the problem boils down mainly to the over-concentration of visitors in the business districts in the Northeast New Territories and some traditionally popular tourist districts. This has led to such problems as rising rentals, closing down of traditional old shops, increases in the prices of daily goods, and chaos in traffic and social order, thus affecting the normal lives of some members of the public and resulting in public discontent. If the Government can make early projection on the growth in the visitor volume annually, formulate plans for the development of the tourism industry and plough in resources reasonably, public discontent would not have formed. 
 
At present, the Government's Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, which takes a shared responsibility for tourism, puts more emphasis on the development of tourism projects, publicity, and regulation over the tourism industry in its consideration, whereas matters relating to traffic and transport are under the purview of the Transport and Housing Bureau. Other matters relating to tourism, such as hotels, sites for scenic spots, and so on, fall under the ambit of the Development Bureau. Government departments work on their own separately, and given equal powers and responsibilities, no Director of Bureau dares to break down the internal division of work among government departments and proactively take up the responsibility of making overall planning for tourism in Hong Kong. This explains why Hong Kong lacks a clear direction for the future development of the tourism industry. 
 
In proposing this motion today, I hope to "throw out a sprat to catch a mackerel" and work in concert with Members to explore the future of tourism industry of Hong Kong. 
 

Tourism planning is a long-term system engineering project, covering such areas as the development of tourism resources, transport, conservation, development of scenic spots and cultural districts, and so on. All these will take time before results can be produced. Let us make a comparison with our competitor, Singapore. From a city with a scarcity of resources where the scenic spots were monotonous or even entirely unavailable, and from a mere transit point for the route touring Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, Singapore has gradually developed into a famous tourist destination nowadays. It has been learnt that starting from the 1970s, Singapore has made plans for tourism development for a number of times, including the positioning of Singapore as a Garden City and endeavouring to develop modernized hotels, and injecting capital into rebuilding streets and districts with historical significance and redeveloping scenic spots. Since then, at the end of almost every decade, a tourism development plan for the next decade would be published, and the Sentosa nowadays is the result of an expansion project planned previously. The financial tsunami in 2008 directly dealt a blow to the economy of Singapore and it was eventually the revenue from tourism that brought relief to the country. This also shows how Singapore can benefit from the results of tourism planning. 

Let us further look at various provinces, municipalities and regions in the Mainland. Every five years, in accordance with the medium-term outline plan of the State, they will draw up an outline plan for tourism for five years or for an even longer period, having regard to their respective characteristics of tourism resources. In the Mainland, tourism and supporting transport facilities have been developing rapidly, and they have long-term plans for development in these respects. In comparison, our Government has shown to be passive and not aggressive enough. 
 
In the Asia-Pacific Region, Hong Kong has already got most excellent conditions. We have a lot of famous scenic spots; we are a meeting point of Eastern and Western cultures, a place where tourists can enjoy cuisines of different countries, and a well-known shopping paradise. We are located adjacent to the Pearl River Delta and Southeast Asia, and we are easily accessible by sea, land, and air transport. Our transport network will be further improved after the completion of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link in future. Other than the Mainland, we have 12 other source markets, each of which is bringing over 500 000 tourists to us per annum, and a continued increase is estimated in the number of tourists for the next few years. Coupled with our well-established supporting facilities for business activities, Hong Kong is a great attraction to business travellers or tourists both from the Mainland and overseas. 
 
President, good resources have to be put to good use, or else they will be wasted and even misinterpreted as a burden on us. In order for Hong Kong to maintain and even surpass its existing competitive edges, the Government must attach importance to the tourism industry and change the current situation of passiveness. Hong Kong has been opened up to IVS visitors for a decade and the number of these visitors coming to Hong Kong has increased considerably. Having a project or a scheme but without long-term and overall planning has constituted a bottleneck in the development of tourism in Hong Kong. 
 
The objective of the tourism industry in Hong Kong is to achieve sustainable development. It is also the industry's objective that the Government will expand the visitor carrying capacity in an orderly manner while striking a balance between promoting the economy and looking after the interests of the local communities to directly benefit members of the public. 
 
To achieve sustainable development, the Government must make commitments for the tourism industry and drum up the resolve to maintain the tourism industry as a pillar industry of Hong Kong, in order not to turn a good thing into a bad thing, and the Government must take actions proactively. I propose that a cross-bureau organization with substantive powers and duties be established on the basis of the existing advisory structure of the Working Group on Convention and Exhibition Industries and Tourism. This organization, to be chaired by a Secretary of Department, will be tasked to formulate long-term planning on tourism and a timetable for development, using a well-planned and step-by-step approach to map out comprehensive plans and conduct objective assessments in respect of the facilities at border control points, development of scenic spots, supporting transport facilities (including the construction of a third runway), injection of tourism resources, regulation of the tourism industry, preservation of monuments and traditional festivals, education on environmental protection and overseas publicity, and then make planning for tourism on a cycle of at least five to 10 years according to the assessment results. In the planning process, I hope that the Government will pay attention to the following several points. 
 
First, we must make scientific judgments on the number of tourists in future, and this is the key to grasping the whole picture. In 2012, the number of inbound tourists was 48.6 million. Based on the growth in the number of inbound visitors over the past three years, we can estimate that in less than five years, the number of inbound visitors may probably exceed 80 million. Think about this: For the various supporting facilities that we have in place now, will they be sufficient when the volume of inbound tourists hits 80 million? What will the Government do to start making suitable arrangements now? All these are the key points of planning. 
 
Second, assessments have to be conducted on popular tourist districts and communities with a high concentration of tourists. Practicable solutions should be proposed for the diversion of visitors to other places, so as to strike a balance in the use of facilities such as roads, transport, scenic spots and shopping malls byHong Kong residents and tourists together, thereby mitigating the inconvenience caused by tourists to the local residents. The development of Lantau into a tourism island is a very good proposal. A motion with no binding effect was passed in the Legislative Council some time ago, and I hope that the Government will expeditiously take steps to achieve diversion of tourists according to the proposals made by Members. 
 
Third, on the promotion of business tourism, importance should be attached to studying the differences between Hong Kong and the neighbouring regions while highlighting the advantages of Hong Kong in the region. At present, Hong Kong is still the most important convention and exhibition centre in the region. According to the results of a survey conducted by the Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Industry Association in 2012, the growth of the convention and exhibition industry in Hong Kong has started to slow down in recent years. In the face of competition from the Mainland, Macao and Singapore, the Government should proactively play a co-ordinating role, in order to give play to the edges of the two convention and exhibition centres, and adopt more aggressive measures and development strategies to maintain the leading position of Hong Kong's convention and exhibition industry in the region. 
 
Lastly, human resources. In recent years, the number of inbound tourists has increased persistently but the industries have generally conveyed the view that they are facing a shortage of talents for positions at the elementary to even middle and senior levels. To enable young people to have good prospects and the relevant industries to identify suitable talents, it is necessary for the Government to expand the arrangements for degree programmes and job training courses to match the demands of the industries reasonably. 
 
President, the Policy Address of the Chief Executive released early this year did not mention much about tourism. I hope that the SAR Government can explore at greater depth the future of the tourism industry and increase its commitment in the light of the actual situation in Hong Kong and incorporate the formulation of long-term planning for tourism into the Policy Address to be delivered by the Chief Executive early next year. 
 
President, I so submit.