HONG KONG PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
637
In the last few sentences of his speech, which I have heard loud and clear, Mr. PAO too agreed that a study should be made, that is, a study by the working group concerned. Somehow I feel I should support Ms. Ada Wong's motion because she has provided a channel, one which formally enables the Council to examine ways to strengthen future communication with the HKTA on cultural and recreational matters.
Mr. Chairman, I object to the amended motion and support Ms. Ada WONG's original motion.
CHAIRMAN (in Cantonese):--All the Members who wished to speak have spoken. Would Ms. Ada WONG please exercise her right of reply?
MS. ADA WONG YING-KAY (in Cantonese):--Mr. Chairman, let me first of all thank all those Members who have spoken, whether they support my motion or not. I hope that today's motion will enable us to have a wider vision on the planning for, provision of and operation of the Council's cultural, entertainment and sport facilities.
I consider that there is no contradiction at all between serving the public and helping boost tourism. I am therefore quite puzzled by a Member's remark that I have put the cart before the horse,
Tourism is one of the largest import services sectors of Hong Kong. In 1995, the total amount of tourist spending stood at $73b and I believe that the figure for 1997 would far exceed this. More than half of the 10m visitors are frequent travellers to Hong Kong. We need to have some activities, whether they are cultural, entertainment or sport activities, to induce these frequent travellers to stay in Hong Kong for a couple of days more so as to bring more business to the retail and restaurant sectors.
The Urban Council is given the statutory power to provide major cultural and sport facilities and so far, it is the body with the largest facilities of these kinds. Why then should we claim that this is not our duty? I consider that to a certain extent we are responsible for our attitude, the vision of our plans, the flexibility of our policies and the adequacy of activities for visitors. Of course I fully accept that we must attach importance to the extent to which our people are benefited. Nevertheless, looking back we will find that the ones who were benefited from the so-called international events in the past few years were the people themselves. Take 'the Phantom of the Opera' for instance. Quite a portion of the audience was people who had never seen any musicals or had never crossed the threshold of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. The audience of 'Alegria' was again mostly the people of Hong Kong. Of course, sport activities, Rugby Sevens etc are attended by the people of Hong Kong as well as overseas visitors. There is no contradiction between the two at all.
While providing more diversified cultural, sport and entertainment activities to the public, we should not neglect visitors from abroad. The problem is that
Page 647 of 654
Page 647 of 654
HONG KONG PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
637
In the last few sentences of his speech, which I have heard loud and clear, Mr. PAO too agreed that a study should be made, that is, a study by the working group concerned. Somehow I feel I should support Ms. Ada Wong's motion because she has provided a channel, one which formally enables the Council to examine ways to strengthen future communication with the HKTA on cultural and recreational matters.
Mr. Chairman, I object to the amended motion and support Ms. Ada WONG's original motion.
CHAIRMAN (in Cantonese):--All the Members who wished to speak have spoken. Would Ms. Ada WONG please exercise her right of reply?
MS. ADA WONG YING-KAY (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, let me first of all thank all those Members who have spoken, whether they support my motion or not. I hope that today's motion will enable us to have a wider vision on the planning for, provision of and operation of the Council's cultural, entertainment and sport facilities.
I consider that there is no contradiction at all between serving the public and helping boost tourism. I am therefore quite puzzled by a Member's remark that I have put the cart before the horse,
Tourism is one of the largest import services sectors of Hong Kong. In 1995, the total amount of tourist spending stood at $73b and I believe that the figure for 1997 would far exceed this. More than half of the 10m visitors are frequent travellers to Hong Kong. We need to have some activities, whether they are cultural, entertainment or sport activities, to induce these frequent travellers to stay in Hong Kong for a couple of days more so as to bring more business lo the retail and restaurant sectors.
The Urban Council is given the statutory power to provide major cultural and sport facilities and so far, it is the body with the largest facilities of these kinds. Why then should we claim that this is not our duty? I consider that to a certain extent we are responsible for our attitude, the vision of our plans, the flexibility of our policies and the adequacy of activities for visitors. Of course I fully accept that we must attach importance to the extent to which our people are benefited. Nevertheless, looking back we will find that the ones who were benefited from the so-called international events in the past few years were the people themselves. Take 'the Phantom of the Opera' for instance. Quite a portion of the audience was people who had never seen any musicals or had never crossed the threshold of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. The audience of 'Alegria' was again mostly the people of Hong Kong. Of course, sport activities, Rugby Sevens etc are attended by the people of Hong Kong as well as overseas visitors. There is no contradiction between the two at all.
While providing more diversified cultural, sport and entertainment activities to the public, we should not neglect visitors from abroad. The problem is that
Page 647 of 654
Page 647 of 654
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