Giving Full Play to the Edges of Local Tourism Resources  (2017/03/22)

 

MR YIU SI-WING (in Cantonese): Presidentand Honourable colleagues, the tourism industry is an important pillar industryin Hong Kong. It brings benefits to many industries and increases employmentopportunities for the grass roots. Tourism is also a lifestyle which enablespeople to admire beautiful scenery and broaden their horizons, so as to bringhappiness to their personal lives. With the advancements in transport and theinformation boom on the Internet, the modes of tourism have started to undergo noticeablechanges.

Here, I try to classify tourists into threecategories by travel purpose and consumer behaviour. The first categoryconsists of traditional tourists who are older, or mostly travel with theirfamilies. They tend to visit many destinations within a short period of travel,and are generally satisfied as long as they can do some casual sightseeing upontheir arrival at the destinations.

The second category consists of members ofthe new generation who have grown up in the Internet era. Netizens are able toknow what is going on around the world without leaving their homes. They areused to acquiring and sharing information on destinations through the Internet,and are interested in what the destinations offer in terms of special touristattractions, culture, food and drinks, entertainment, and so on, hoping to getfirst-hand experience of local folkways and customs. As recently pointed out byCopenhagen's official body for tourism promotion when it unveiled itsdevelopment strategy for 2020, a new-generation traveller seeks not the perfectstill picture to take home, but the emotional connection to an instantly sharedexperience based on interests, relations and authenticity.

The third category, which is less talkedabout, consists of our local tourists, that is, Hong Kong people. This categoryof tourists is often overlooked when we discuss the composition of visitorsources of the tourism industry. In fact, the success of many touristattractions was initially driven by local demand before they gradually becamepopular and found favour with foreign tourists. Take for example Japan, whichwe are familiar with. Many tourist attractions in Japan were promoted overseasonly after they had satisfied the demand of local people and after theirancillary services had taken shape. Some of the tourism projects there evenrely on local people. A typical case in point is Tokyo Disneyland, withdomestic tourists accounting for over 90% of the total attendance. So, whenconsidering tourism planning, the authorities should also take into account theneeds of Hong Kong people. The Lantau Development Advisory Committee hasrecently incorporated recreation and leisure into its study of tourismplanning. This is a correct and wise move.

In the light of this, when devisingforward-looking tourism strategies, the Government must not focus only onmeeting the traditional demand of the tourists in the first category whileignoring the needs of the tourists in the second and third categories. Today,in moving this motion, I hope that the authorities can break away from thetraditional concept of tourism planning, leverage the edges of local tourism resources,embrace the changes in the existing consumer base, and provide new visitorsources and impetus for Hong Kong's tourism industry.

In retrospect, it can be said that thedevelopment of Hong Kong's tourism industry over the past 10-odd years has benefitedfrom three factors, namely good timing,

geographical convenience and harmonioushuman relations. Thanks to the Central Authorities' policy of expanding theIndividual Visit Scheme, as well as Hong Kong's own tourism resources and itsstrength as a shopping destination, Hong Kong saw a golden period of inboundtourism from 2004 to 2014 with a continuous and significant growth in visitorarrivals, which rose from 21.8 million in 2004 to a peak of 60.83 million in2014, representing a nearly twofold increase. In that period, however, theGovernment failed to make corresponding adjustments to ancillary services toaddress changes in market demand. This has led to a series of problems, causingthe development of our tourism industry to hit a bottleneck.

 Thefirst problem lies in the Government's complacency and lack of long-termplanning. Over the past 10-odd years, the Government has only been complacentabout the continuous growth in visitor arrivals without conducting any in-depthstudy of the changes in the composition of inbound visitors or any seriousassessment of Hong Kong's receiving capacity. It has also failed to takeadequate measures against our rivals in the region, and there has been a lackof long-term planning for tourism development.

The second problem is that the Governmenthas focused on investing in major tourist attractions but given little weightto tapping local tourism resources. Regarding the development of touristattractions, the Government has obviously focused on investing in major ones.In recent years, almost $20 billion has been committed to the expansion ofOcean Park and Disneyland. By contrast, when it comes to other local tourismresources, there has been a clear lack of investment in hardware facilities andancillary support for software tourism services. Our policy departments incharge of tourism have even refused to provide free guided tour and tourismambassador services on the pretext of having no budget, while these servicesare regularly provided in the communities and tourist attractions of certaincountries. Our training and accreditation systems for tour guides are stuck ina rut. The authorities have failed to make professional classification of tourguides to address changes in visitors' needs, leading to varying standards ofour tour guide services.

The third problem is the lack ofcoordination and connection among tourism-related projects. At present, theregulation of the tourism industry, the development of major touristattractions and the publicity or promotional funding for tourism are within thepurview of the Tourism Commission under the Commerce and Economic DevelopmentBureau, but the powers to lead the operation of many local tourist attractionsare scattered across the portfolios of different Policy Bureaux. There are manyexamples of this: country parks and geoparks fall under the purview of theAgriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department; Kai Tak Fantasy and thetourism-related planning for Lantau fall under the purview of the DevelopmentBureau; district tourism resources such as museums, antiquities, monuments andthe West Kowloon Cultural District fall under the purview of the Home AffairsBureau.

 Asdifferent Policy Bureaux have their respective purview and do not want tooverstep their bounds, they are unwilling to take the initiative to coordinateand solve practical problems. For instance, in the case of the Geopark, eversince the announcement that it was listed as a global geopark in 2011 by theUnited Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization("UNESCO"), Hong Kong has been obliged to meet the requirements ofUNESCO with respect to local engagement, improvement of rural livelihoods,science popularization and geotourism, but the follow-up actions taken by Hong Kongregarding ancillary services and publicity have been clearly inadequate. InUNESCO's assessment, Hong Kong has lost the most ground in its scores for"local engagement", nearly resulting in the removal of the Geoparkfrom UNESCO's list. Obviously, if we had a Tourism Bureau, it would beresponsible for the integration, coordination and deployment of tourism-relatedresources, in which case the tourism resources in various districts of HongKong would definitely be put to good use, and we would be able to prevent anyembarrassing situation similar to the one concerning the Geopark as mentionedabove.

Deputy President, the aim of giving fullplay to the edges of local tourism resources is not only to recommend HongKong's local culture and special tourist attractions to overseas tourists, butalso to provide Hong Kong people with room for recreation and leisure, with aview to creating travel experiences with Hong Kong characteristics and acolourful variety of lifestyles.

In view of the needs of the aforesaid threecategories of tourists regarding tourism products, as well as the problemsfacing us, I would like to make a few suggestions below:

Firstly, I suggest establishing aninter-departmental body responsible for coordinating and enhancing thetourism-related facilities in various districts. In addition to maintaining thecompetitiveness of the existing traditional tourism projects, the authoritiesshould comprehensively collate the tourism resources scattered in differentdistricts, and offer appropriate support in respect of ancillary facilitiesthrough coordination.

Take Tung Ping Chau for example. Thisisland is part of the Geopark and is generally recognized as a unique touristattraction in Hong Kong. However, as there has been no mains water or stableelectricity supply on the island as yet, residents of the island have tocollect rainwater and rely on electricity generators for power supply, and itis difficult for them to live there permanently. Despite the residents'vociferous calls, the problem remains unsolved, thus leading to thenear-desolation of the island, which is a precious tourism resource. In thepast, residents of Tung Ping Chau used the shale they obtained locally on theisland to build distinctive houses, one of which has even been listed as aGrade 3 historic building of very high historical and conservation value. Butnow, due to the constraints of environmental policies, residents of the islandcan no longer obtain shale to repair the houses, let alone convert them intohomestay lodgings to attract tourists.

Although Tung Ping Chau has become part ofa global geopark, no improvement has been made to its facilities andaccessibility. If even basic ancillary services are not up to scratch, anyattempt to develop geotourism is bound to be futile. The Government shouldstart by looking at tourism demand, collaborate with stakeholders in the localcommunity on the premise that proper conservation should be conducted, andprovide basic facilities through the implementation of favourable policies toenable people to take up residence on the island, while developing ecotourismto provide the residents with more business start-up and employmentopportunities. Launching tourism projects with distinctive features based onhistoric and ecological revitalization is not only good for the enjoyment ofthe public and tourists, but also conducive to disseminating information aboutconservation and passing on history and culture. This is worth considering bythe relevant government departments.

There are actually many similar examples.As Hong Kong has yet to set up a Tourism Bureau, I hope that the Government canstudy the establishment of an inter-departmental body first. It should, on thebasis of feedback from all quarters, select several district developmentprojects with tourism potential, and invest money to improve basic hardwarefacilities and refine ancillary services for such projects, includingstrengthening traffic arrangements, updating signage, increasing Wi-Fi hotspotsand QR Codes, and setting up more tourist information centres, so as toprogressively enhance the tourism facilities in various districts and upgradeHong Kong's overall receiving capacity.

Secondly, the Government should attachimportance to the opinions of the District Councils and stakeholders in variousdistricts. At present, each of the 18 districts of Hong Kong has differenttourism resources, some of which have already made their presence felt and arequite popular with tourists (such as Ngong Ping, Stanley, the Peak, Wong TaiSin Temple, Hollywood Road in Central, and Cheung Chau), but some of which arestill in want of enhancement in terms of ancillary facilities, promotion andpublicity despite being well placed for development (such as Tung Ping Chau,which I have just talked about, Sai Kung, Lei Yue Mun, Sham Tseng, Sham ShuiPo, Lam Tsuen in Tai Po, and Kai Tak Cruise Terminal). Many districts wish toboost employment and revitalize the economy through the development of tourismwith distinctive features, yet they are worried that the growth in visitornumbers may get out of hand, causing nuisance to residents and underminingconservation efforts. The authorities can, through conducting surveys, take theinitiative to collaborate with stakeholders in the districts according topriorities; seriously assess the tourism characteristics, traffic conditionsand conservation capacities of different districts, as well as the extent towhich local residents may be affected; and then, having regard to thecharacteristics of different districts, formulate tourism development plans forthe districts in phases, and appropriately provide policy support and funding,with a view to developing district tourism in earnest after fully understandingthe actual needs of different districts.

Thirdly, the Government should strengthenthe pool of tour guides in Hong Kong. At present, there is only one type oflicence for tour guides in Hong Kong, and the training of them is merelyconfined to general knowledge about guiding tourists and is certainly unable tocater for future market demand. The Government should encourage the industry toreform the current licensing regime by categorizing tour guide licences basedon different tourist guiding professions. At the same time, additional fundsshould be allocated to provide different training platforms to progressivelyestablish a pool of tour guides that can cater for different needs, so thattourists can get not only pleasure from their visits but also a betterunderstanding of our unique local characteristics, Chinese and Westerncultures, scenic spots and historic monuments from the introduction by tourguides, so as to know more Hong Kong stories from tourism.

Later on, I will seriously listen to theinsightful opinions of Honourable colleagues, and then respond to them.

With these remarks, Deputy President, Imove the motion.