Thirdly, improving a number of remote public piers to facilitate public and visitor access to outing destinations and natural heritage, and the first phase will cover about 10 public piers in the New Territories and the Islands District; 

Fourthly, supporting the conservation of rural areas through harnessing community efforts, and taking forward revitalization projects in Lai Chi Wo to rejuvenate its ecological, cultural and architectural environment;

Sixthly, the implementation of the Revitalising Historic Buildings Through Partnership Scheme which involves 19 historic buildings, and eight among them have completed revitalization works and are open to the public. Among these, four have won the Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; 

Seventhly, the completion of a number of art and cultural facilities in the West Kowloon Cultural District ("WKCD") one after another, and the taking forward of the development of the Hong Kong Palace Museum in WKCD to enhance its attractiveness to both locals and visitors from the Mainland and overseas; and

Eighthly, organizing for the film sector Belt and Road promotional tours to countries with market potential, such as Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia and India, with a view to attracting film producers to come to Hong Kong for post-production and location filming and production facilitation services.

The above eight initiatives are closely related to the tourism industry, but they are included in different parts and paragraphs of the Policy Address and will be taken forward by different Policy Bureaux. Just imagine, if a Tourism Bureau is established, the initiatives mentioned above will be collectively reflected in the coordination of tourism resources, and more tourism planning in a wider sense can be inspired. 

Deputy President, a Tourism Bureau can be found in many countries and places to coordinate, regulate and promote the development of tourism, but such duties are now respectively taken up by three organizations in Hong Kong, namely, the Tourism Commission, the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong and HKTB. The Travel Industry Authority ("TIA") proposed to be established will only be tasked with trade regulation and issues concerning tourism planning will not be addressed. Hence, trade members generally call for the setting up of a Tourism Bureau and hope that the Government would give active consideration to the proposal. However, under the current circumstances, the setting up of TIA is an established fact. In order to ensure the healthy development of the tourism industry, we hope that the Government would consider establishing a cross-bureaux and high-level committee to assist and coordinate the work of different Policy Bureaux in taking forward various tourism-related projects, so that these projects will achieve the greatest effectiveness to the largest extent. Various Policy Bureaux should not be allowed to maintain the existing practice of going their own way without communication and coordination during policy implementation.

The tourism industry of Hong Kong has been exposed to various degrees of challenges in the last two years, thus affecting directly the economy and employment situation of Hong Kong. It is our hope that greater importance will be attached by the Government of the next term to the development of the tourism industry. The Government should not find excuses of not doing anything about it on the one hand, while emphasizing on the other hand that the tourism industry is one of the four economic pillars of Hong Kong. Ever since I joined the Legislative Council in the last term, I have been proposing to the Government that short-, medium- and long-term tourism planning initiatives have to be formulated to develop tourism in Hong Kong in a coordinated and well-planned manner. However, after a lapse of few years, apart from pursuing improvements to the existing facilities, not many concrete measures have been formulated to help relieving the tourism industry from its plight.

By contrast, neighbouring places like Hengqin in Zhuhai and Macao are making their tourism planning in a well-planned and orderly manner, and there are indeed many experiences for Hong Kong to draw reference from. Take Macao as an example. As the gambling business of Macao has suffered a serious setback since the launching of the anti-corruption campaign in the Mainland a few years ago, Macao has changed its planning objective to building the city into a world centre for tourism and leisure, thereby transforming itself strategically from a purely gambling city into a place for family holiday tours. Although the annual total visitor arrivals in Macao for 2016 have only increased slightly by 0.8% when compared with those for 2015, the total overnight visitor arrivals have increased by 10%. As for Hong Kong, the total number of visitors we received last year have decreased by 4.5%. It can thus be seen that we should map out the development plan for tourism in a well-planned and orderly manner so that the industry will remain invincible in the face of an ever-changing economic environment.

Deputy President, since the introduction of the Individual Visit Scheme by the Mainland in 2003, inbound tourism of Hong Kong has undoubtedly relied heavily on the Mainland market, and over 75% of the total visitor arrivals are visitors from the Mainland. Given the consumer demand of Mainland visitors, Hong Kong has been focusing its publicity efforts on traditional tourist attractions and shopping destinations, and investing mainly in man-made attractions. However, as man-made attractions require huge investments and a duplicate can easily be found elsewhere, continuous efforts have to be made to inject new elements into the attractions, lest they will lose their attractiveness. Hong Kong's reputation as a shopping paradise is also threatened by competition from neighbouring regions and the change in spending pattern of Mainland visitors, and hence the relevant Policy Bureau does have the responsibility to readjust the arrangements made in tourism investment and advertising strategy.

HKTB is now planning to invite organizers of world-renowned electronic competitive sports to host their events in Hong Kong. Surveys indicate that the value of gambling on electronic competitive sports has already exceeded that on golf and rugby and this has become the seventh largest industry in the world. It has huge market potential and enjoys great popularity among young people. I hope such emerging industries could be developed into signature mega events which enjoy international reputation, so as to attract more high-yield overnight visitors and enhance the international image and status of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is a place of cultural diversity and has a rich variety of intangible cultural heritage, and 10 of these intangible cultural heritage items have already been inscribed onto the national list of intangible cultural heritage. Among them, the Tai Hang fire dragon dance, the Cheung Chau Jiao Festival and the dragon boat race during the Dragon Boat Festival are favourite festive activities for visitors. There are 480 items in the First Intangible Cultural

Heritage Inventory of Hong Kong, and these items form the treasure trove of our tourism resources. Take martial art as an example. Over 10 categories of martial art are included in the Inventory, including Tai Chi Tanglangquan (Praying Mantis Boxing) which is originated from Shandong in the north and brought to Hong Kong in the south, Shaolin Tiebigong (Iron Arm Skill) which is one of the 72 Shaolin martial art skills and Hung Gar Kuen Style (Hung Fist) of Foshan. The successors of these branches of martial art settled in Hong Kong in time of war and started teaching the art skills. Together with other local branches of martial art in Hong Kong, a stirring of interest was created in learning martial art, and dragon dance, lion dance have also become essential performing arts items on festive days. Therefore, we should explore these items further so that promotional campaigns might be launched to help boost tourism.

Deputy President, green tourism has grown in popularity worldwide, and Hong Kong has been regarded as a hikers' paradise by a lot of visitors because
there are numerous hiking routes in the territory, and they are located in close proximity to urban areas and can conveniently be accessed by different modes of transport. MacLehose Trail has been cited as one of the world's top 20 hiking trails by the United States National Geographic Channel, and as early as in 2004, the Dragon's Back was named the most celebrated urban hiking trail by the Time magazine. The number of visitors to country parks is as high as 11 millions every year, and many overseas visitors have come specially for hiking and bird-watching. Besides, the Hong Kong Global Geopark is a recognized global geopark under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and a rare example of global geopark in a cosmopolitan city. After more than two years of publicity, the volcanic rock in the East Dam of High Island Reservoir in Sai Kung has also gained more attention and grown in popularity.

Such local characteristics in Hong Kong can actually offer us abundant resources for development. Hong Kong is a premier tourist city in the world,
and in the Top 100 City Destinations Ranking announced by the Euromonitor International Limited, it ranked first in 2015 for seven consecutive years with a record of 26.69 millions overnight visitors that year. This has best illustrated Hong Kong's attractiveness to high spending visitors, and we should repackage our tourist resources to turn day trip visitors to overnight visitors and encourage overnight visitors to stay a few days more, so as to move our tourism industry up the value chain.

The development of tourism with local elements does not necessarily involve the provision of large attractions. We can just start by using the resources at hand and adding into the existing facilities the elements needed to satisfy visitors, and then followed by a focused and phased publicity programme to promote and publicize these distinctive tourist resources of Hong Kong to visitors from all over the world and local people, thereby conserving and
transmitting such resources and bringing multiple benefits to the industry. The city's position as an events capital, the diversification of local culture and the natural environmental features are all valuable resources of Hong Kong. It is the responsibility of the Government to protect and publicize these resources in orderto show to the world a more precious side of Hong Kong.  

Deputy President, I so submit.