Transcript of remarks at media session on cross-boundary transport arrangements for large-scale events (with photo/video)
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Reporter: Will the Government publicly apologise for the inconvenience caused to those affected tourists? How many people do you expect from the Mainland to come to Hong Kong for the Lunar New Year, especially for the fireworks? What are the arrangements to avoid similar chaos from happening again? Can you give us some examples? Is the Government concerned about the incident will harm Hong Kong's image, given the former city leader's recent criticism of the tourist authority's lack of proactive measures to attract Mainland tourists? This time, they were the ones who were upset and affected.
Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism: On the attractions for tourists, you will be aware that in the past years, we have been upgrading a lot of our tourist attractions, including the theme parks, peak tram and a number of cultural facilities that are now opened to our tourists and become very important attractions.
We have been organising a number of major events as well, such as the fireworks, the Wine and Dine (Hong Kong Wine and Dine Festival). There will be some more coming up during the Chinese New Year, including a parade as well as fireworks. So, I think we are still a very attractive destination for tourists. As reflected in some of the surveys conducted in the past two or three weeks, Hong Kong remains a very welcome tourist spot for the Mainland tourists.
We are expecting that there will be quite a number of tourists coming during the Chinese New Year. Before the pandemic, the Chinese New Year is one of the peak periods when there are a large number of tourists from the Mainland coming over. So, we will be taking measures and initiatives, together with some of the new measures that our colleagues have mentioned to tackle the issue regarding the returning of Mainland tourists to the Mainland after attending major events.
But the Chinese New Year may be a little bit different, because that will be a longer holiday on the Mainland. It is possible that Mainland tourists will likely be spending more time in Hong Kong as well. That said, we learn from this time and we are taking new measures. We will do all we can and spend our efforts to make sure that to our Mainland tourists, if they decide to return to the Mainland after some major events, the arrangement will be more satisfactory.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Tuesday, January 2, 2024
Issued at HKT 19:38
Issued at HKT 19:38
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CS meets media