2024 implementation meeting of Culture and Tourism Development Plan for Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area convened in Hong Kong (with photos)
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The Commissioner for Tourism, Mrs Angelina Cheung, stated during the meeting that based on the Plan's principle of shaping tourism with cultural activities and promoting culture through tourism, the HKSAR Government, by optimising Hong Kong's rich tourism resources such as its coastline and outlying islands, and integrating them with its cultural and artistic heritage, will fully leverage Hong Kong's positioning as an East-meets-West Centre for International Cultural Exchanges under the National 14th Five-Year Plan, and to develop Hong Kong into an international tourism hub and a core demonstration zone for multidestination tourism. She noted that the meeting concluded with fruitful results, and the HKSAR Government will fully support and implement the key tasks of the Plan, closely collaborating with the Department of Culture and Tourism of Guangdong Province, as well as other culture and tourism departments of GBA cities to deepen tourism co-operation between the Mainland and Hong Kong, with a view to enhancing Hong Kong's role in national tourism development and contributing to achieving the goal of developing a world-class bay area for leisure, as set out in the Plan.
The Chief of Office of the Secretary for Economy and Finance of the Macao SAR Government, Ms Ku Mei-leng, stated at the meeting that as of early November 2024, the number of visitors to Macao has surpassed 30 million, recovering to 87 per cent of the levels seen in 2019. The development trend of Macao's tourism industry continues to be positive. The Macao SAR Government will strive to leverage the "culture plus tourism" synergistic effect by making good use of policies and cultural and tourism co-operation mechanisms and continue to strengthen co-operation with the GBA's partner cities, complementing each other's strengths to jointly build a cultured Bay Area, and a Bay Area for leisure .
Level I Bureau Rank Official of the Department of Culture and Tourism of Guangdong Province Mr Zhang Yimin stated that the Department will work under the guidance of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to collaborate with Hong Kong and Macao to pragmatically advance and co-create brands to further promote the prosperous development of the cultural and tourism industry in the GBA. This includes accelerating the joint development of the cultured Bay Area, fostering cultural prosperity, enriching the supply of tourism products, enhancing cultural and tourism brands, and increasing the cultural and tourism influence of the GBA in order to jointly make the GBA a world-class tourism destination.
The Deputy Director of the Department of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Affairs of the International Exchange and Cooperation Bureau of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Mr Kong Lun, stated at the meeting that the Plan has been implemented in an orderly manner and achieved with significant results over the past year. For the way forward, he mentioned three suggestions, including (i) to further co-ordinate and integrate resources in creating popular multidestination tourism products for inbound travelers and promote synergistic development of inbound tourism marketing to attract more international visitors to the GBA; (ii) to continue making efforts in jointly creating high-quality cultural products, improving public cultural services as well as the cultural and creative industries and carrying out high-standard cultural exchange activities in order to promote Chinese culture to the world; and (iii) to seize new trends and demands in the cultural and tourism market in cultivating new business trends to enhance service quality towards cultural and tourism consumption, establishing a "golden brand" for the GBA's culture and tourism through driving high-quality development with innovative thinking.
The Plan was jointly promulgated by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Office of the Leading Group for the Development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (the Leading Group) and the People's Government of Guangdong Province on December 24, 2020, to further implement the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Under the framework of the Leading Group, the related departments of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao will continue to enhance co-ordination and communication to establish an implementation and daily communication mechanism, with a view to jointly taking forward the implementation of the Plan. The 2025 meeting for the Plan will be hosted by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on the Mainland.
Ends/Monday, November 18, 2024
Issued at HKT 16:08
Issued at HKT 16:08
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