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differentiate between commercial events, non-profit-making and charitable events as well as the events presented by the Urban Council.
Secondly, as regards recovery of ticket cost, I support the suggestion of offering charge waiving/concessionary rates to cultural events, but I hope this will be reflected in our accounting arrangements. At the last meeting of the Finance Select Committee, I have already mentioned this point. That is, the ticket cost of $6 per ticket is in fact part of our expenses on venue management. However, on our accounts concerning venue management, all other operational expenses such as lighting etc. are listed but the ticket cost is not reflected. I think that such accounting arrangement does not fully reflect our expenses. Therefore, I hope that if there are any waiving of charges for cultural activities, they should be reflected in our accounts. To list out the amount payable to URBTIX but waived, I think this can be done in accounting.
As for operational efficiency, Mr. Chairman, I have the following suggestions:
(1) I observe that the URBTIX system is operating slowly. Basically it is because most people are making enquiries of the programmes. I hope the proposal of setting up Information Kiosk which include enquiry services could be implemented as soon as possible. Then, the public can follow the instructions at the Kiosk and by pushing a button, they will see which shows of, say, “Les Miserables” are already full, thus saving a lot of time queuing up for a show only to find out that it is already full. I believe that the Information Kiosk will help to improve efficiency and will complement the work of the URBTIX.
(2) I hope the telephone ticketing service will be provided soon. If the UA cinemas can use telephone ticketing system, I do not see why the URBTIX cannot do so.
(3) We have been talking about the automatic ticketing machine for a long time but nothing is being done. I hope the automatic ticketing machine could be introduced soon to provide more choices for the public. We pledge to improve efficiency and we can achieve this by allowing the people to select their seats through the automatic ticketing machine instead of wasting their time queuing up at the ticketing office.
(4) Lastly, I hope that we should liaise with the relevant organisations for Video-on-Display Services because VOD will be the trend in future. Now shopping and banking can already be done at home through the VOD. I do not see any reason that URBTIX tickets cannot be bought through VOD with payment made by credit cards later. In 1996, I think it is not difficult to realise this as I know that the Hong Kong Telecom for instance has been working on VOD and this facility will probably come on the market next year. I hope our colleagues in the Department will contact them immediately to see if the VOD can be applied to the URBTIX system.
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differentiate between commercial events, non-profit-making and charitable events as well as the events presented by the Urban Council.
Secondly, as regards recovery of ticket cost, I support the suggestion of offering charge waiving/concessionary rates to cultural events, but I hope this will be reflected in our accounting arrangements. At the last meeting of the Finance Select Committee, I have already mentioned this point. That is, the ticket cost of $6 per ticket is in fact part of our expenses on venue management. However, on our accounts concerning venue management. all other operational expenses such as lighting etc. are listed but the ticket cost is not reflected. I think that such accounting arrangement does not fully reflect our expenses. Therefore, I hope that if there are any waiving of charges for cultural activities, they should be reflected in our accounts. To list out the amount payable to URBTIX but waived, I think this can be done in accounting.
As for operational efficiency. Mr. Chairman, I have the following suggestions:
(1) I observe that the URBTIX system is operating slowly. Basically it is because most people are making enquiries of the programmes. I hope the proposal of setting up Information Kiosk which include enquiry services could be implemented as soon as possible. Then, the public can follow the instructions at the Kiosk and by pushing a button, they will see which shows of, say, “Les Miserables' are already full, thus saving a lot of time queuing up for a show only to find out that it is already full. I believe that the Information Kiosk will help to improve efficiency and will complement the work of the URBTIX.
(2) I hope the telephone ticketing service will be provided soon. If the UA cinemas can use telephone ticketing system. I do not see why the URBTIX cannot do so.
(3) We have been talking about the automatic ticketing machine for a long time but nothing is being done. I hope the automatic ticketing machine could be introduced soon to provide more choices for the public. We pledge to improve efficiency and we can achieve this by allowing the people to select their seats through the automatic ticketing machine instead of wasting their time queuing up at the ticketing office. (4) Lastly, I hope that we should liaise with the relevant organisations for Video-on-Display Services because VOD will be the trend in future. Now shopping and banking can already be done at home through the VOD. I do not see any reason that URBTIX tickets cannot be bought through VOD with payment made by credit cards later. In 1996, I think it is not difficult to realise this as I know that the Hong Kong Telecom for instance has been working on VOD and this facility will probably come on the market next year. I hope our colleagues in the Department will contact them immediately to see if the VOD can be applied to the URBTIX system.
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