Govt prepares for holiday arrivals

The Culture, Sports & Tourism Bureau today convened a meeting to follow up on the preparatory work by various departments for the arrival of visitors to Hong Kong during the Mainland's Labour Day Golden Week, including crowd control management.

The meeting was chaired by Secretary for Culture, Sports & Tourism Kevin Yeung, with representatives from the Customs & Excise Department, Police, the Immigration Department, the Transport Department and district offices in attendance.

Representatives from tourism-related organisations including the Travel Industry Authority, the Tourism Board, the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong and the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, and from major tourist attractions and the hotel industry, also joined the session.

Mr Yeung said: “Government departments, relevant organisations and the trade will strengthen co-ordination and communication as well as enhance crowd management work to create a good travel experience for visitors and demonstrate the city's unique tourism appeal.”

During the Labour Day Golden Week, Police will make appropriate traffic arrangements if necessary, including arranging for public transport to use the designated dedicated lane at San Sham Road to travel to Lok Ma Chau/Huanggang Port.

In addition, the Inter-departmental Joint Command Centre will be activated to monitor the situation at each land control point as well as to maintain close liaison with Mainland counterparts and take contingency actions where necessary.

The Transport Department’s Emergency Transport Co-ordination Centre will operate 24 hours to monitor the traffic of different districts, including boundary control points and major stations, and implement response measures where appropriate.

The district offices will closely monitor the flow of visitors within their districts and strengthen management of the relevant spots with regard to the circumstances. Major tourist attractions will also put in place crowd control measures.

The Travel Industry Authority has reminded travel agents receiving Mainland inbound tour groups to stagger arrival times as far as possible and urged travel agents, shops and restaurants to implement measures for managing the order of visitors and coaches.

The authority will also deploy additional manpower to conduct inspection in districts where relatively more registered shops for inbound tour groups are located, and offer assistance to visitors and tourist guides to protect the rights of inbound tour group visitors.

Additionally, Customs will step up inspection of shops serving visitors to combat unfair trade practices.