A study of built heritage conservation and cultural tourism policies under the existing planning framework : "old town Central" as a case study

Abstract

In view of past district-led heritage cum cultural tourism initiative, many of them aimed to attract more visitors by leveraging district’s character at the “point-line-plane” level. As a mutually beneficial and sustainable relationship should be developed between heritage conservation and cultural tourism, it is worthy to explore the effectiveness of existing planning framework on promoting historic building conservation and cultural tourism, using “Old Town Central” scheme as case study. This research adopted both qualitative and quantitative method for data collection. Views on the effectiveness of planning framework in facilitating built heritage conservation and cultural tourism promotion were collected from 100 online questionnaire survey and thirteen semi-structured interviews with interviewees of different expertise. A set of effectiveness criteria was set in accordance to past overseas literature. Under the established planning framework in delivering an increasing number of successful heritage conservation project in Central, suggestions are made on aspects like more timely identification of revitalization plans and diverse building use with better interpretation area. Hong Kong may also learn from overseas practice in Macau or Australia in introducing more market involvement and cross-sector collaboration in heritage conservation and cultural tourism projects. A clear message of how Hong Kong position itself in the cultural tourism industry should be conveyed, highlighting the city’s effort in promoting heritage conservation under a “point, line, plane” approach. The mutually-beneficial relationship between improved planning framework on promoting heritage conservation and cultural tourism policies is believed to be a vital driver for the continued development and cooperation between these two sectors in the future.