The council members believed that Sai Kung would definitely be the most suitable location for developing a tourism centre to cater for both domestic and foreign visitors. They realized the market for 'non-urban based modern large-scale recreational and leisure facilities.' The district was visualized to be fully developed as an ‘Asian Pacific Tourist and Recreation Centre,' consisting of four main elements: the natural environment and scenery, historical and cultural features, outdoor sports and recreation (especially water-based ones), and science-based facilities. Other transportation and infrastructural facilities were also suggested in the plan.
Although this plan was not approved, it demonstrated the interests of the local community in developing their homeland in tourism. Most of the council members are from the local community, and the academic representative in the council is the president of the HKUST, which is located in the Sai Kung district. The other members are mostly president or vice-president of rural committees. In order to collect information for the proposal, these members have visited various famous tourism attractions all over the world, including Australia and Singapore, and met important people in those developments. They consulted specialists in developing tourism in Australia for the plan. They spent a total of HK$3 million (US$386,600) on the whole project. The Sai Kung District Development Foundation is dedicated to enhance Hong Kong's attractions in order to 'out-compete our regional neighbours and to sustain the promised growth of our tourist industry.' Their enthusiasm and determination in developing their homeland is undisputed.
As evident in the above cases, different parties play a part in the development of environmental conservation and tourism. The success of development often depends on effective communication and cooperation between these parties. For each of the cases, the support from the local community within the development is a key element in developing the homeland of those indigenous people and the sustainability of a development often depends on this factor.
As I have mentioned, Sai Kung district was designated as one of the two centres for recreation and leisure activities in the twenty-first century; the objective of the Southeast New Territories Development Strategy Review (SENTDSR) was to carry out the planning of the district. The idea of a Sai Kung leisure garden was considered a complex