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The Commissioner for Tourism, Miss Au King-chi, has visited Beijing and Shanghai this week to exchange views with Mainland and international industry leaders and government representatives on tapping the huge opportunity created by the growing popularity of cruise tourism in Asia.
While in Beijing from Monday (October 20) to Wednesday (October 22), Miss Au spoke at the 2008 China Cruise Industry Development Summit, an important cruise trade event on the Mainland with the participation of industry and government representatives from relevant ministries and more than 10 Mainland port cities.
During her address, Miss Au elaborated on Hong Kong's hardware and software developments for cruise tourism and how Hong Kong and Mainland port cities could co-operate to attain a win-win situation by developing multi-destination sea plus land itineraries for cruise passengers.
Miss Au called on the China National Tourism Administration, and the National Development and Reform Commission yesterday to update them on Hong Kong's general developments on the tourism front and exchanged views on issues relating to regional co-operation in tourism.
Speaking at the Seatrade All Asia Cruise Convention in Shanghai today, Miss Au shared with leading international cruise operators Hong Kongˇ¦s latest developments as a regional cruise hub. She also outlined its plan to fund the development of a new cruise terminal and invited views from the industry on its design and future operation.
"The visits to Beijing and Shanghai have been very fruitful and given me and my colleagues a chance to discuss face-to-face with the cruise industry players. The Government will continue to engage the industry and work with our neighbouring cities to enhance partnership and co-operation in the development of cruise tourism in Hong Kong," Miss Au said.
Miss Au will return to Hong Kong today.
Ends/Thursday, October 23, 2008
Issued at HKT 17:00
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