Visitor dispersal in Hong Kong : effectiveness of Lantau Island development plan on dispersing visitors from current core area

Abstract

Tourism is one of the pillar industries in Hong Kong. In the past years, tourism industry experienced a rapid growth. The boom of tourism industry brought some benefit to the city, at meanwhile many social problems. The Government believed over-concentration at city center was the main reason for the side effects. To tackle the issue, the Government introduced some strategies including developing new tourism hub. Developing Lantau Island into another tourism center has been on government’s agenda for years. In the island’s concept plan, there are large amount of tourism provisions. In order to assess the effectiveness of the new developments on Lantau Island on diverting visitors outward urban core area, this study applied Lancaster’s Characteristic Framework. Study result suggested that Lantau Island could effectively disperse visitors after the completion of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge and expansion of Hong Kong International Airport. To understand new development’s locational effect on visitor dispersal, factorial comparison was conducted between Lantau Island and an alternative site at Fanling. It is discovered Fanling has slight advantage in diverting visitors for its proximity to Mainland China, the largest tourist market. Improvement in transportation network could largely enhance dispersal effect. Since visitors demonstrate a declining interest in shopping activities in Hong Kong, more cross-boundary facilities would not divert general visitors, but is believed to be helpful in stopping same-day in-town visitors who come to Hong Kong for shopping only, especially the parallel traders, from entering city center. Nevertheless, making use of local lands to facilitate illegal activities involves planning ethical issue. The government is suggested to continuously improve transportation network, give careful consideration in cross-boundary shopping facility planning to cater visitor’s changing demand and local resident’s needs, and develop alternative tourism modes, such as cultural tourism, in the future to ensure a sustainable development of tourism industry.