'Key Problems and Issues Facing Hong Kong\r'

'Contemporary Tourism Issues subject: TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE TOURISM †KEY PROBLEMS AND ISSUES lining HONG KONG Introduction Unquestionably, Hong Kong is a blessed prop up where possesses prosperity and nearly of the elements of being a world class cosmopolitan which has succeederfully attracted visitants over years, especially from the main record by emphasising our maiden shopping, dining and some other urban attractions (Lam, H. , 2004). disdain the favourable scene of the tourerry industry, the volatile tourist markets and growth competition from S step upheast Asian countries and neighbouring destinations abide posed new challenges to Hong Kong’s touristry industry. In order to establish Hong Kong’s position as a preferable Asian tourist destination, in upstart years, Hong Kong regimen has started paying more than attentions to sustainable touristry due(p) to the salary increase environmental consciousness worldwide and tourists’ growi ng interests in the new forms of tourism, namely Eco-tourism and ethnical Tourism.Projects and campaigns, such(prenominal) as the training of Hong Kong Wetland Park, the erect of â€Å"Cultural Kaleidoscope” and â€Å"Nature Kaleidoscope” experience programmes, and publish tour guidebooks- â€Å" acknowledge Hong Kong Nature” and â€Å"Discover Hong Kong by Rail” were introduced to promote colour tourism and heathenish tourism (GovHK, 2009). These furtherance schemes have been launched with the aim to sustain the tourism industry by diversifying the tourism products to allow to the changing and diverse assumes of inbound tourist market.Despite the development is on cutting off of continued growth which has aroused tourists’ interests to regard at â€Å"the other faces” of Hong Kong, many issues argon needed to take into consideration due to the complex disposition of sustainable tourism and the large number of stakeholders pos tulated in. thither is criticism from public that throughout these schemes, piddling attention has been paid to develop the tourism as a whole and a truly sustainable one since the schemes argon heretofore carried out in a loose manner without a original insurance. The almost significant issues be environmental ustainability and heathen sustainability due to the most recent focus of government on these issues and their vastness to the sustainable development. purlieual Sustainability body politic position and nature reserves make up 40 percent of Hong Kongs total land area of some 1,100 square kilometres (Ling, 2007). Regarding the sexual intercourse ample resources and the initial success of Wetland Parks, Hong Kong government recognized the fountain authorisation in Hong Kong tourism and has aggressively proposed numbers of special K initiatives lately, such as the Lantau North orbit Park and Marine Park, Geoparks as considerably as cycle tracks and mountain b icycle trails.However, regarding these proposed pukes, incompetent concerns have been given to the carrying energy of these native resources as well as the cost of construction. It is found that the conservational practices are non carried out in a nonindulgent manner as a instance in Kam Tin Wetland and Hoi Ha disgusted marine reserve, which are two well-known(a) bionomical attractions in Hong Kong, were reported in suffering wastage problems (Cheung, 2006).Another typical example is a member of Advisory Council on the Environment opposed to the proposal of Lantau North Country Park concerning the development of transport gene linkage of Tung Chung Road would damage the bionomics of the areas. It aroused preservationists’ concern that government’s overemphasis on bringing in the tourist dollars go out keep tourist agencies and residents pore on generating large-scale projects notwithstanding place little concern on qualification low- clashing sustaina ble tourism (Crets, 2006).From the projects being carried out or proposed, it shows government’s interests on large scale investment but not much effort and digest given to the details, such as the carrying ability of the ecological resources. It implies government emphasized on the profit making and lacked of a whole-heartedly attitudes towards sustainable tourism. There is no doubt that green tourism has a large potential difference to become one of the major tourism sectors in Hong Kong with its educational and sustainable center as well as the scotch benefits resulted from the emanation awareness of this market.However, sustainability should not enjoin mainly on the economic side since sustainability of tourist attractions, i. e. , the ecological sites and the hereditary pattern, is the core shelter of sustainable tourism. Although the government claimed that it has been not bad(p) on â€Å"promoting green tourism in northeastward New Territories and outlying i slands having regard to the principles of nature conservation and sustainable development. (GovHK, 2009), it is doubtful that, regarding its indemnity on green tourism, whether Hong Kong government has a clear and accurate vision for green goddess tourism that lead incorporate the natural environment. Tourism should be regarded as a tool for ecological and heritage preservation but not the other modality round, otherwise there is no original meaning of sustainable tourism. Apparently, there is still much room for improvement regarding the policy as more concern and manoeuvre should be placed over the environmental sustainability so as not to countermand the economic sustainability on the environmental sustainability.The success of green tourism is largely hooked on effectiveness of government on proviso and management to minimize the impact to environment and the effective distribution of ecological resources. One of the measures suggested to the government is to have stric t control on the environmental conservations rather of focusing on constructing more attractions and promoting the markets. The carrying efficiency of the green attractions should be carefully canvass and controlled by imposing strict regulations on the visitor numbers and their behaviours.Besides, due to the rising demand, eco-guides’ demand is stretching, thus setting jural standards for eco-guides as well as providing grooming for nurturing the expertise are in imperative needs to cope with the stretched demand as well as to educate the tolerate behaviours in the ecologist attractions (Chong, 2007). Cultural Sustainability Due to the diversification in Hong Kong’s culture which is positioned as East-meet-West, Hong Kong has been recently facing the demands of constructing an identity reflected in choices about what heritage to conserve and how to sacrifice it (Henderson, 2002).With the current trend of globalization and bundle movement of people, issues of cultural identity and cultural preservation continue to be explored. Recently, Hong Kong has been keen on developing attractions to kick upstairs Hong Kong’s cultural image, one of the fine examples is the proposed cultural venues, the West Kowloon Cultural District. Besides shape new cultural venues, preserving and promoting Hong Kong’s touchable and intangible heritage are accounted as other measures to showcase Hong Kong’s combine culture.Examples like preservation and development of the creator Marine guard Headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui into a tourism facility by the private sector, â€Å"1881 Heritage”, and HKTB’s furtherance of traditional Chinese customs and festivals such as the Tin Hau festival battle array in Yuen Long and Cha Kwo Ling, Tam Kung Festival in Shaukeiwan, the Cheung Chau Bun Festival and the natal day of Lord Buddha celebrations at Po Lin Monastery. Despite these efforts, several problems are found regarding Hong Kong’s culture and heritage sustainability policy.It is found that Hong Kong has been comparatively slow in developing its potential heritage sites into tourist attractions, as seen in the controversy over the fate of tiger Balm Garden and the Central Police Station. jibe to Chu and Uebegang (2002), the sluggish and passive response of government reflects the lack of political will due to a lack of discretion of the principles of heritage and its potential. The Government believes heritage conservation should be driven by tourism and economics and not treated in the same way as other social and education services.Even with the setting up of Heritage Tourism Task major power which is established in 1998, there have been very few recommendations proposed by the projection force. Some critics have blamed on its lack of leadership and lack of specify in the government bureaucracy (Chu and Uebegang, 2002). some other problems implied in the policy of government are lack of a broad-based, long-term conservation policy, lack of a clear priorities and inadequate co-ordination of government departments involved in toast tense heritage conservation practice.Besides, in most cultural heritage development, public thing in decision-making is absent. Regarding these problem, it is essential for government to swap its attitude and strike for a more holistic vision and policy towards the cultural heritage conservation. It is due to the challenge face up by Hong Kong that it has long promoted its culture as an exciting fusion of East-meet-West and traditional-meet-contemporary, which may condition it falling in a peril of overemphasizing on supranational style attractions and a loss of actual distinctiveness.Development may stick with a common path to create uniform of tourism features which convey correspondent image to the tourists. Therefore, the cultural and heritage conservations are essential in the tourism development as it helps to maintain a un ique sense of place and difference as intrinsic merit to secure its competitory advantages and reposition the image besides an international metropolitan with the colonial history. Apart from these problems of disjointed policy and vision, the management issue of the cultural heritage has been another concern by the conservationist and researchers.Since the cultural and heritage tourism requires a cautious approach with sensitivity, research, and friendship stake due to its core jimmy is to convey the value to and engage present generations without betraying the spirit of the previous generations’ experiences. It is crucial and just to involve the participation of those people and groups who are most closely related to the consequence of the heritage area. Without this, it is difficult to achieve meaty conservation. In Hong Kong, there is lack of cooperation with and involvement of the local anaesthetics or the significant cultural group.It is, therefore, suggested to involve the local company at the planning and operation level which can enhance the sustainability of the projects as well as bar the problem of being too commercialized which affecting the authenticity and integrity of the heritage. Referring to the need of involvement of local community, certain level of empowerment is essential which can be regarded as community based tourism. It in the main described as â€Å"responsible blend to natural areas that conserves the environment and sustains the eudaimonia of local people. It requires tourism activities to be in general developed and operated by members of the local community and that revenues from tourism remain within the local community. Respect for local culture, heritage and traditions is imperative. CBT teaches the visitor to behave responsibly and respectfully towards nature and native culture, and offers activities that give the visitor an rationality and appreciation of the area without degrading it. most importa ntly of all, it can reserve the sustainable resources and reduce the impacts to the community daily deportment at the minimum level.Conclusion Tourism is most ideally suited to adopt sustainability as a guiding philosophy in sustainable developmemnt (McKercher, 2003). However, mismanaging sustainable tourism will turn it into a curse as it will damage the ecological and heritage attractions in more direct ways. According to McKercher (2003), sustainable tourism is built most quadruple pillars of tourism, namely economic sustainability, ecological sustainability, cultural sustainability and local sustainability, all these four elements must be addressed if we are to achieve sustainable tourism.It is found that recently Hong Kong government is striking for sustainable tourism, however, there is a lack of broad watch and holistic policy to support the efforts. unregulated short-term initiatives which serve the narrow interests of mesomorphic forces in the industry may guess the s ustainability and longer-term tourism potential of many communities upon which legal age interests are based (Brohman, 1996). It is therefore important for government to be aware of the proximo planning must be holistic, strategic and long-term.Laws, procedures and systems for planning, preservation, development and management should be alter or created to ensure that the development of the project is undertaken in ways that are conformable with the principles of sustainability. Besides, all these should be applied to a culture of caring for the environment, therefore the concepts of preservation and sustainable development should be fostered and boost within the government and the community so as to ensure the true and holistic meaning of sustainable tourism.\r\n'