Following is a question by the Hon Dominic Lee and a written reply by the Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism, Miss Rosanna Law, in the Legislative Council today (October 22):
 
Question:
 
     The Government announced in the 2025 Policy Address its plan to introduce market-based business models into designated facilities of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) to enhance visitor experience and operational efficacy. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
 
(1) how the Government will specifically implement the aforementioned plan to introduce market-based business models, and whether it will, for example, provide clear information on available dates and time slots for venue bookings, and offer short-term or long-term (such as annual) rental options;
 
(2) of the annual attendance, utilisation rates of various facilities, and income sources of each museum under the LCSD over the past five years; whether the Government has plans to draw upon practices at overseas tourist attractions and experience in shopping mall management to introduce cultural and creative projects, design mascots, put in place photo spots and immersive interactive exhibits at the LCSD museums and other indoor exhibition venues, and open such venues to commercial organisations for hosting guided tours, games, augmented reality (AR) experiences, festive events or themed exhibitions; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
 
(3) as it is learnt that some private fitness centres have utilised facial recognition technology and intelligent systems for 24-hour operation, whether the Government will consider introducing similar technology or upgrading the existing intelligent sports and recreation services booking information system named SmartPLAY, so that all the LCSD sports centres and related facilities (such as pitches/courts and fitness rooms) can operate 24 hours a day, thereby maximising venue utilisation and achieving intelligent management; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
 
(4) whether the Government has plans to combine market-based business models with the concept of smart outdoor parks, incorporating technological elements into outdoor recreation and sports facilities (such as utilising big data and the Internet of Things to enable members of the public to connect fitness equipment with their mobile phones to record their exercise data and physical condition, with the system then recommending personalised fitness programmes), thereby enhancing the public's experience and utilisation rates; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
 
(5) whether it has further studied the feasibility of implementing market-based business models at all the LCSD facilities (including the impact on fees, service quality and public participation); if so, of the study results; if not, whether it will consider conducting relevant studies?
 
Reply:
 
President,
 
     It is announced in the 2025 Policy Address that the Government will introduce market-based business models into designated facilities of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) to provide more diverse value-added activities, and explore the feasibility of engaging the market to enhance the operations of the Lei Yue Mun Park holiday camp and selected beaches with a view to developing recreational, leisure and aquatic hotspots.
      
     My reply to the various parts of the question is as follows:
 
(1) and (5) The LCSD plans to make available not less than eight of its facilities, such as museums and parks (including the Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA) and Kai Tak Station Square) within 2026 to introduce commercial elements and to flexibly provide more diverse value-added activities, such as leasing out museum venues on their closing days for commercial or private activities, introducing paid guided tours for visitor groups, and developing more cultural and creative products.
 
     The LCSD plans to engage a professional operator (such as an event planning company) to leverage its market knowledge and professional expertise for marketing suitable venues to target clients, providing technical and logistical support for events, arranging exclusive guided tours of large-scale exhibitions at the LCSD museums for target groups, and providing client management services. We are now formulating the relevant details.
      
     Regarding the operations of the Lei Yue Mun Park holiday camp and selected beaches, the LCSD will invite interested commercial entities or non-profit organisations to submit proposals for operating the Lei Yue Mun Park holiday camp on a commercial basis, and developing selected beaches into new recreational, leisure and aquatic venues. Interested operators are encouraged to put forward feasible proposals. The LCSD is now exploring the concrete market-based business models. Detailed arrangements as well as the fees to be charged will be subject to the nature and content of the activities, venue conditions, etc. The above initiatives are in the exploration phase, and the LCSD will assess their effectiveness in due course, including their impact on service quality, public participation and revenue.
 
(2) Attendance of the LCSD museums and average utilisation of museum facilities in the past five years are tabulated below:
 

Year	Attendance	Average utilisation of museum facilities (Note 2)
2020-21	850 000 (Note 1)	76.2 per cent
2021-22	3 270 000 (Note 1)	78.6 per cent
2022-23	4 370 000 (Note 1)	76.2 per cent
2023-24	7 000 000	77.3 per cent
2024-25	7 660 000	69.5 per cent

Note 1: Due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, museums and venues under the LCSD were temporarily and intermittently closed from 2020 to 2022.
Note 2: Other than exhibition galleries and exhibition halls, museum facilities include lecture halls, activity rooms and theatres.
 
     The LCSD museums provide broad access to cultural education and public services for the community and do not aim solely for commercial profits. Currently, apart from a low admission fee (from $10 to $20) being charged by the permanent exhibitions of the Hong Kong Science Museum and the Hong Kong Space Museum, all permanent exhibitions of other museums are open to the public for free. Major revenue sources of the LCSD museums include admission fees and rental charges for hiring facilities, sale of cultural and creative and artistic products, tickets of public programmes (such as film screenings), as well as permit/licence fees for operating shops and cafes.
      
     The LCSD museums promote the development of the arts and cultural industries on an ongoing basis through collaborations with local brands in the cultural and creative industries. For example, we launch cross-over products with different brands this year, including the collaboration with a stationery brand during the Hong Kong ICH Month 2025 in June, where an artist with disability was invited to design stickers of 10 intangible cultural heritage items of Hong Kong, allowing customers to create personalised notebooks; releasing three limited-edition gift boxes in collaboration with a local bakery in July, with artworks from the collections of the Hong Kong Heritage Museum (HKHM) and the HKMoA for showcasing the century-old craftsmanship of the bakery and the aesthetics of our museums. Moreover, we will be partnering with two local brands to launch museum-themed brick sets and food products respectively to promote Muse Fest HK 2025 in November.
      
     The LCSD continues to incorporate new technological elements when staging exhibitions in its museums and to set up photo-taking spots and immersive exhibits to enhance the visitor experience. For example, the "Comic Fun for All: The Magic of Hong Kong Comedy Comics" exhibition currently at the HKHM presents an innovative, inspiring and educational museum experience to visitors by featuring immersive projection programmes, comics viewing interactive installations, experiences with AI-generated images, as well as interactive installations for photo-taking with comic characters. The exhibition "Legacy of Lingnan School of Painting: In Commemoration of the 120th Anniversary of the Birth of Chao Shao-an" just opened this September at the HKHM, on the other hand, creates an immersive digital sea of flowers using Professor Chao's paintings of Lingnan scenery and bird-and-flower, guiding visitors into the vibrant world depicted in the master's works and immersing them in a wonderland of Lingnan blossoms. Furthermore, the "Engaging Past Wisdom: Min Chiu Society at Sixty-five" exhibition currently at the HKMoA employs holographic imaging technology to reinterpret the artefacts in three dimensions, allowing visitors to interact with the exhibits and enhancing their interest in and understanding of the artefacts.
 
(3) The LCSD is committed to promoting the culture of "Sport for All" and provides a diverse range of sports and recreational facilities to encourage the public to build a healthy lifestyle. While the fee-charging recreational facilities of the LCSD (such as fitness rooms, sports grounds and turf soccer pitches) generally open from 7am to 11pm, most non-fee charging facilities (such as some 900 sets of outdoor fitness equipment in parks and playgrounds across the territory) open 24 hours a day. The existing arrangements regarding the opening hours of sports and recreational facilities cater to the needs of most people. As adjusting the opening hours (including opening fitness rooms 24-hour a day) requires additional public resources, the LCSD has no such plans at the moment.
 
     Regarding facility management and operation, the LCSD has been enhancing efficiency and service quality through the application of technology, such as launching the intelligent sports and recreational services booking and information system, SmartPLAY, with a dedicated website and a mobile app, in 2023, to enable members of the public in logging into personal accounts, searching and booking sports and recreational facilities, or enrolling in sports and recreational programmes anytime and anywhere. The LCSD will continue to keep an open mind to explore actively on the use of technology in assisting the management of sports and recreational facilities, thereby providing better leisure services to the public.
 
(4) The LCSD is introducing technology elements to park facilities to enhance the experience of the public. For instance, to provide additional novel outdoor fitness facilities suitable for use by different age groups, the LCSD is installing, on a trial basis, outdoor fitness stations with smart elements at four outdoor leisure venues, allowing users to store and retrieve data of their physical activities and access health information after using these smart fitness facilities. This will facilitate their management of personal health and monitoring of physical fitness, as well as enhance the pleasure of exercising, thereby encouraging members of the public to exercise on a regular basis. The first smart fitness station at Victoria Park has been opened for public use since March 2025. It is expected that the smart fitness stations at Hoi Fai Road Promenade in Tai Kok Tsui, Kowloon Tsai Park and Hoi Chu Road Playground in Tuen Mun will commence service within this year.

Ends/Wednesday, October 22, 2025
Issued at HKT 12:53

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