Functions and Importance of TC

Discuss about the Strategic Planning for Tourism and Leisure.

The Tourism Commission was established to coordinate with various government development organisations. The objective of tourism commission is to establish and indorse Hong Kong as Asia’s leading international city. To accomplish this objective, the trade commission and government work together closely. The government is constantly making efforts develop a portfolio of tourist attractions. The government has acknowledged four major pillars, economic, financial services, tourism, trading and professional services. These pillars create employment opportunities and leads to growth of other sectors as well. The tourism commission is focusing on the development of cultural activities, historic and heritage buildings. This report introduces tourism industry of Hong Kong. The functions of Hong Kong tourism commission have been considered for the tourism development of country. The work of tourism commission in tourism, leisure, events and hospitality is evaluated.

Background, structure, vision and missions

The tourism industry in Hong Kong is major pillars of economy. The tourism commission is headed by the Commissioner for tourism. The TC is liable for framing and directing policies and strategies for the tourism development. TC leads and manages the work of other government bureaux and departments which have association with tourism development. The TC works with HKTB to promote development of tourism and ensure best use of resources. It also advices to secretary on the matters like commerce and economic development. The city has a number of events which aim to attract visitors throughout the year (Getz & Page, 2016). The “Hong Kong- Live it, Love it” campaign promotes tourism.

The government of Hong Kong established Tourism Commission in 1999 with the aim of maintaining Hong Kong’s position as the top destination city in Asia. It makes efforts to enhance tourism facilities. The TC supports the expansion of new attractions to recognise country as a premier tourist destination. Hong Kong is a beauty of charm due to it’s culture and lifestyle. The city is also symbol of natural beauty and offers natural park land and spectacular scenery. The tourism commission work closely with Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) to encourage growth of tourism in Hong Kong. The TC frames policies to enhance experience of visitors.

Mr. Anthony Lau was appointed as executive director of HKTB in 2007. He takes charge of managing all global operations of HKTB. The board comprises twenty members. These members represent tourism industry (Huang, Goo, Nam & Yoo, 2017). The members are appointed by SAR government of Hong Kong for the term of three years. The head quarter of TC is in Hong Kong.

Impact of TC on the Economy

The vision of TC is promoting Hong Kong as world class destination for leisure and business visitors. The mission is to ensure balanced, healthy and sustainable development. It maximises the social and economic contribution to position city as most desired location (Wise, 2016).

Tourism Commission (TC) formulates policies and strategies in discussion with HKTB and tourism industry. It also frames policies for the development of tourism in Hong Kong.

Tourism Commission functions to carries out study on new tourism attractions and accommodation facilities. It implements specific proposals time on time such as Hong Kong Disneyland, International Wetland Park, Cable Car System and more (Ram, Björk & Weidenfeld, 2016).

TC provides active input in Government planning process and implements the projects that have impact on tourism.

Discover and improve areas of development which may enhance attractiveness of country as tourism destination (Clavé & Wilson, 2017)

Facilitate and arrange events to identify country into the events capital of country.

Maintain relationship with authorities at government level to take part in international opportunities.

Standardize and enhance service quality of travel agents.

Work closely with HKTA to make sure that resources are being used at best and support government.

The tourism commission contributes an important part to economy of Hong Kong. There has been increase of domestic and international tourists. The HKTB and other sectors of tourism industry have been established to advise government on tourism development. The government is continued to develop wide range of tourist attractions (Tassiopoulos, De Coning & Smit, 2016). It also renovates heritage property to convert into tourist attractions. The tourism has completed projects like The Wisdom path, Aberdeen tourism project, Hong Kong Wetland Park, Avenue of stars, Visitor signage improvement schemes and more. The current projects include Ocean Park’s Tai shue wan development project and Hong Kong Disneyland Resort-Future Developments (Jordan, 2015).

Ocean Park Hong Kong

The Ocean Park Hong Kong was opened in 1977 by the governor of Hong Kong. It is a marine life theme park which features animals, thrill rides and shadows. It is situated on the southern side of Hong Kong Island. It is a premier educational them park and covers area more than 915,000 square metres. The two major areas in park are connected by cable car and ocean express funicular train. The park offered classic Hong Kong street food on the 40^th anniversary celebration. It is operated by the Ocean park corporation. It is a non-profit organisation and aims to provide entertainment, education and conservation at minimum prices. The park has constantly renovated itself to serve customers in a better way (Erb & Ong, 2017). The Ocean Park was named in ‘The most popular amusement parks in the world’ in 2007. Forbes Traveller ranked park as one of the ‘50 most visited tourist attractions in the world’ in 2012.

Popular Tourism Destinations in Hong Kong

The park strive to maintain welfare of animals and encourages audience protect environment and help community to converse it (Li & Hunter, 2015). The Ocean Park has also established the Ocean Park Conservation Foundation in 1993. It aims to improve practice towards conversation in city through cooperative programmes.

Repulse Bay Beach

Repulse Bay is a beach in the southern part of Hong Kong Island. It is one of the most beautiful beaches in Hong Kong. It is built in old-fashioned Chinese style. Repulse Bay was converted into a beach in 1910. The Repulse Bay hotel was constructed in 1920. Repulse Bay is just a short ride from the Central District. The beach is popular with local and international visitors. It is famous for strolls in the early morning and sun soaking in daytime. 

The Repulse Bay houses various designer shops and award winning restaurants. It is one of the expensive housing areas in Hong Kong. The beach also has the collection of monuments, deities, statues, building and towers in the south east end of location. The beach is surrounded by mountains and town homes. It is a popular destination to visit on weekends especially in the warm summer months. The best views of island are part of attraction of beach.

Stanley market

Stanley market is in the quaint village of Hong Kong over crowded with locals, emigrants and tourists. Stanley market is a must go place for tourists. It is famous for enormous selection of brand clothing items, accessories, home furnishings and ornaments. The items are sold at reasonable prices. It is a typical street market and is a perfect place to bargain with shop owners. The market is open 7 days a week. The shopping can be ended by good food at stalls and famous restaurants. Along with the market, it shares temples which worth a visit. Most of the things at Stanley market can be enjoyed at day time. So, it is better to visit market in sun light (Vu, Li,  Law & Ye, 2015).

Hong Kong Disneyland resort

The first Hong Kong Disney resort was built in China. The Hong Kong Disneyland was set up in 2005. The Disneyland resort includes hotels and recreation facilities.  Three themed lands have been added since opening of Disneyland. These theme lands are Toy story land, Grizzly gulch and Mystic point. The Disneyland includes Iron man experience, Star Wars, Royal princess garden and Disney explorers lodge. Walking into the Disneyland makes a person feel like wonderland. The persons are accompanied by Mickey Mouse and other friends. The Disney theme hotels are equally attractive. The Chinese and Asian food is also appeal to many visitors (Higgins & Huque, 2015). A person feels courageous can also visit Adventure land. Fantasyland and Tomorrow land adds more experience to the visitors. The launch of new night time parade has launched series of new initiatives based on Marvel’s Iron Man.

Stakeholders are the persons who will be affected by the development projects or those persons who will be befitted by the development projects. For instance, Lung Mei man made project is a perfect example. The residents who live nearby beach may be home owners including native villagers and people shifted from other parts of city. There can be tenants also who undertake short term tenancy without any consideration for long time to the villagers. The beach project will bring tourists and visitors. It is going to increase demand for business (Phillips & Mohutinho, 2014). As a result, rental charges and price of homes will go up. The residents will be benefitted directly or indirectly.

Example one

Visitors or tourism are stakeholders of tourism commission as they are affected by the development projects. The tourism stakeholders advised to Hong Kong government to place innovation and creativity. The number of visitors is falling on night laser show of Symphony of lights. The crowd have been declined in 2014 and 2015 amounted to 1.77 million and 1.45 million (South China Morning Post, 2017). The expenses are shared between government and the participant. Later, it was observed that the more innovations were needed to enhance the show. The light could be linked to the application that synchronises music or videos which explains the story of city. The visitors are affected by such performance of heritage destinations because they do not get entertain or get the worth charges paid by them. The government also suffers equally from decreasing number of visitors. As, the commission get affected by less number of visitors. The innovation and freshness can be adopted by tourism commission to increase number of stakeholders of company.

Example two

Government is stakeholder of Tourism Commission as government is befitted by the development projects. For this the government improved connectivity between Hong Kong and many cities. The 142 kilometres high speed express rail link will improve the connectivity. It will reduce the travel time between points. The development made in tourism by government has generated employment in country. A robust frame work is used by the government before developing long term tourism plan. The government has role in HKTB, Ocean Park, Kai Tak Cruise Terminal and Hong Kong Disneyland Resort (Khazaei, Elliot & Joppe, 2015).

There is relationship between visitors and government.  The government has role in developing plans. The visitors and tourists are befitted by their experience. The government focuses on Hong Kong to join tourism scheme (South China Morning Post, 2016). The Individual visit scheme 2003, liberalised tourist visits to Hong Kong. The tourism commission is befitted by tourism since 2000. The government has active role in completion of projects and current projects. The information, satisfaction, efforts and the tourism commission decides the level of interest.

Social and Cultural impacts

The cultural tourism boosts understanding of tourists regarding history and lifestyle of community.  The social impact differs on the basis of education, communication, value, beliefs and region. The socio cultural impacts are connected with interfaces between people and culture, attitude and behaviour. The tourism and culture have a mutual beneficial relationship which supports the attractiveness of Hong Kong. Culture is an important part of tourism product. The tourism commission focuses on evolving and upgrading infrastructure facilities of city (Tsui & Fung, 2016).

The culture in Hong Kong carries out various measures to promote. For instance, the Heritage Development Bureau declared that monuments with special themes should be open to the public and tourists. To ensure sustainability, cultural tourism should be analysed.

Analysis of tourism commission on economy is important for policy making in Hong Kong. The tourism industry is the fastest growing industry. The local visitors and tourists have varied interests and connection with destination and resources. The tourists have different characteristics such as duration of stay, satisfaction level and psychographic characteristic such as age, gender, expectations and background. The economic impact of tourist is increase in employment opportunities and higher standard of living (Huang, Goo, Nam & Yoo, 2017). These are the positive impact of economy. It can also increase job creation and human resource management.

The negative impacts can be splits in unity among the old and new residents. It can also have increase in tax and inflation. The economic impacts can be further divided into direct and indirect impacts. The direct impacts are measured by the tourism expenditure of Hong Kong. It falls within the tourism sector such as transportation, space and amusement parks. The indirect impacts are caused from economic activities of consequent expenditure. The role and importance of tourist destination can be better understood from economic impact of tourism. The attractions consists Hong Kong Disneyland, Ocean Park and Repulse Bay Beach. These attractions help to boost economy of Hong Kong.

The quality of environment is essential to tourism. The tourism includes various activities which can have negative impact on economy. These impacts are associated to construction, infrastructure such as road, transports, tourism facilities like hotels, restaurants, resorts and more. The negative impacts are destroying natural resources (Li, Li, Van Den Brink & Woltjer, 2015).

The tourism also creates positive impacts on environment by taking steps towards environmental protection and conservation. It raises consciousness towards environmental values. These can be treated as tool to protect natural areas. The environmental impacts can be considered by the following points:

Wildlife:  The wildlife is badly affected by the infrastructure for tourists. The infrastructure such as roads, construction of hotels and resorts lead to depletion of forests. Reducing forest land is reducing number of wild animals on earth. As a result, the culture is losing it’s wild life. The impact on wild life can be considered by the elevation of mountain resorts (Ahn & McKercher, 2015).

Conservation: The tourism has positive impact on conversation of environment. It has encouraged the restoration of monuments and heritage buildings. It has also maintained and renovated the existing tourist attractions. It has also developed old buildings into new tourist attractions. The old building has been also converted into commercialisation such as restaurants and shopping arcades (Tolkach, 2018).

Solid waste: The tourist activities lead to solid wastage. The waste disposal is a serious problem. More wastage is found in rivers, scenic areas and roadside. For instance, the cruise ships are estimated to produce more than 70,000 tons of waste ever year. It can destroy the physical appearance of water. It is also causing the death of marine animals.

Protection and preservation: The tourism contributes to environmental protection, preservation and renewal of biological diversity. The concern towards attractions identifies that the natural areas are valuable. It also helps to creation of national and wild life parks.

Noise pollution: The noise pollution arises from cars, buses, airplanes and from other vehicles. The jet skis are a problem of contemporary life. It also causes stress, irritation and hearing loss. It also causes stress to the wildlife in sensitive areas (Bastida & Huan, 2014).

Financial contribution: The tourism contributes financially to Hong Kong. The revenue can be generated from park entrance fees and other sources. The fees can be charged for the amusement activities happening at tourist places. The charges can also be collected for hunting and fishing.

Benefits and challenges of using historic buildings for tourism, leisure, hospitality and event purposes

The maintaining and saving monuments with respect to tourism helps in attracting local visitors and tourists. The people who like to experience spirit of Hong Kong can experience through architecture. The old buildings which are used for tourism purpose helps in creating more employment opportunities for locals. It also improves economic prosperity of Hong Kong (Coccossis, 2016). The maintenance of historical buildings provides workplace to local public.

The old buildings help to understand history that happened years ago. It represents the ancient culture. It creates respect for the people of old generation. It helps to preserve old monuments and plays crucial role in refining pride of heritage. The past gives the unique recognition in the world. Hong Kong is famous for Stanley market, Ocean Park, Repulse Bay beach, Avenue of stars, Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter and Golden bauhinia square (Clavé & Wilson, 2017).

Restoring old building is eco-friendly than building new green buildings which saves energy. The old eco-friendly buildings can simply become green. The preservation and protection of old buildings reduces construction wastage (Chiu, Chan & Marafa, 2016). It also saves energy spent on building new buildings. It is considered a better form of recycling. It also represents culture and achievement of ancients.

The heritage buildings are an important asset of Hong Kong. The involvement of tourists is strongest motive for city. It does not only give income to the region but recreates existence of cultural objects. It is also the channel of distribution of information. The tourists like to know culture of other countries. It improves relationship of country with other countries (Marais, du Plessis & Saayman, 2017).

It is challenge for the teams to work together in tourism planning process of tourism organisations. The inadequate practice of culture heritage protection can diminish the protection. Such practices are into social, cultural, political, economic and political policies at local and national level.

The conflicts between tourism projects and conversation of cultural heritage can lead to poor planning. It can put adverse impacts on heritage a community (Carlisle, Johansen & Kunc, 2016.)

The visitors who have less respect for the spiritual places and traditions, conducts themselves in irresponsible manner. It can have an adverse impact on communities that regards culture as an important part of their identity (Malek & Costa, 2015).

The poor planned and designed visitor facilities can put adverse impact on the tourists. The image of heritage places can be spoiled. It puts bad impact on the heritage places.

The promotion and management of traditional places that cannot minimize variations in arrivals and do not avoid excessive number of tourists at one time can poorly impact on significance of place and on experience of visitors (Evans, 2016).

History and current function

Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter is on the south side of Hong Kong. It is a popular dining spot and is one of the world’s largest floating restaurants. It is designed according to Chinese traditions. It can seat up to 2300 diners. It is one of the famous tourist attractions in city. The design for Aberdeen tourism project was designed by the tourism commission. It draws out the features of traditional fishing dock and culture of Aberdeen (Astudillo, Leung & Bonebrake, 2016). The government has supported local community in maintaining traditional activities to the shelter. The shelter attracts more than 100 participants during the Dragon boat festival every year.

The government has also taken measure to keep the shelter clean. The marine department has been employed to collect marine refuse. It conducts regular operations. The environmental protection department monitors water quality and provide disposal facilities to prevent flow of sewage into water (Dredge & Jamal, 2015).

It includes different commercial elements. The southern district office has initiated signage at various spots to show locations to visitors who like to take sampan ride. The department makes effort to provide more seats to the tourists.

The TC was appointed to refer financially and measure the commercial and financial sustainability for the conceptual design. The commission has undertaken improvement for the further implementation of project (Ziakas, 2016). The improvement work is carried out for the both sides of Aberdeen.

Aberdeen typhoon shelter is home for Aberdeen fishermen. The main profession of people at Aberdeen is fishing. The social impact is extremely complex. 80,000 people are jam packed on the Aberdeen typhoon shelter which is territory’s social problem. The main problem of shelter is livelihood. The water in Aberdeen includes wastage. The plastic bottles, containers, fast food has been constantly found in water. The improper cluttering by some fisherman’s is the main reason of marine cluttering (Hartman, 2016).

The restaurants at Aberdeen can be closed due to bad weather. The visitors are not advised to visit in bad weather. The owners of yachts are told to keep check night time as there can be risk of theft. Marine biologists have shown support to fishermen for managing fisheries.

Conclusion and recommendations

The tourism industry is major pillar of economy of Hong Kong. It contributes a big percentage in GDP of country. The tourism Commission coordinates tourism development efforts in country. The tourism commission works closely with HKTB aiming Hong Kong to make destination famous worldwide. The report concludes that Hong Kong has various attractions to attract local visitors and tourists. The projects completed by TC shows the tourism development of country. It has also undertaken various upcoming projects. The impact of tourism commission has more positive impact than negative on society, culture, economy and environment. Hong Kong is benefitted to large extend by using historic buildings for tourism and event purposes. The tourism commission can do further development by undertaking new projects.  The commission have not undertaken any new project after Hong Kong Disneyland. The tourism commission is focusing more on repair and maintenance of heritage buildings than building new. The youth is interested in some new kind of developments. So this prospect should be kept in mind. The tourism commission can also adopt some new concepts from the other countries. The new technologies can be used for constructing tourism attractions. The commission can go for some more amusement parks. As, kids and families enjoy being there.

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