Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
RESEARCH
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTI VE SUMMARY
FOREWORD
TOURI SM I N HONG KONG
OVERVI EW
SOME FACTS ABOUT OUR VI SI TORS
TOURI ST ACCOMMODATI ON I N HONG KONG
HOTEL VS. GUESTHOUSE
NO. OF ROOMS AND I NCREASE I N ROOM RATE
NUMBER OF LI CENSED GUESTHOUSES
DI STRI BUTI ON
GUESTHOUSE OPERATI ON I S A GROWI NG BUSI NESS
FI ELD RESEARCH: GUESTHOUSE I N HONG KONG
ANNUAL UNACCOUNTED DEMAND = 6. 9M ROOMNI GHTS
INVESTI GATI ON ON UNLI CENSED GUESTHOUSES
EXTREMELY PROFI TABLE: $184 PER SQ. FT RENT
MORE TO BE FOUND ONLI NE
DI SCUSSI ONS
GUESTHOUSES TAKE UP RESI DENTI AL UNI TS
SHORTAGE OF AFFORDABLE HOUSI NG HI TS GRASSROOTS
INCREASE SHORTAGE I N HOUSI NG SUPPLY
I NCREASE DOMESTI C RENTS
VI NTAGE DMCS DO NOT REGULATE LAND USE
CHAI N EFFECT
LACKI NG DETAI LED STATI STI CS
POLI CI ES ON GUESTHOUSE
POLI CY ON HOTEL LAND SUPPLY
POLI CY ON LI CENSI NG AND ENFORCEMENT
RECOMMENDATI ONS
CONTROL THE GROWTH OF TOURI SM
COMPREHENSI VE STRATEGY ON HOTEL LAND USE
COMPREHENSI VE ASSESSMENT ON TOURI SM I MPACT
ENFORCEMENT AND PROSECUTI ON
OPEN DATA
WHAT I S OPEN DATA?
WHY SHOULD WE PROMOTE OPEN DATA?
WHAT THE GROUP HAS DONE?
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
APPENDI X
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Hong Kong has bare hotel land use planning and there is no
segregation between tourist accommodation land use and
domestic land use.
Although the Government proposes to amend the Hotel and
Guesthouse Accommodation Ordinance (HAGAO) to
empower the Authority to refuse to issue/renew licences or
cancel the existing licences where the Deed of Mutual
Covenant (DMC) of the building concerned contains
explicit restrictive provisions stipulating that guesthouse
operations or commercial activities are not allowed, such
proposal will not resolve the problem to great extent.
As reflected in the field research, many unlicensed
guesthouses situate in buildings with vintage DMCs that
simply do not regulate the use of the premises. Owners are
free to use the premises for whatever purposes.
Although the relevant authorities have spared no effort to
combat unlicensed guesthouses from operation, our
research reveals that no convicted persons have been
fined for more than HK$20,000, even though the
statute has empowered the court to impose a
maximum fine of HK$200,000. Only 22 persons are
sentenced to imprisonment in the past 5 years for
committing the offence, and most of them stayed in
jail for less than 2 months.
We recommend Hong Kong to strategize its tourism
development. Master plan on hotel land use is welcome.
Consultation on master planning of hotel land use should be
introduced regularly to ensure democratic participation of
the planning process.
Review of existing hotel land use policy, including the
hotel-site only initiative introduced in 2008 but not
followed up afterwards, is most in need.
Taking into account our tourist carrying capacity, we should
consider accepting fewer tourists.
The Group pioneers to apply the Open Data Research
Method to conduct the current research with the aims to
introduce open data research to the civil society, as well as
to nurture a more transparent and accountable research
environment. All research data collected and material
referred to are available and open to public.
2,273
4 3
200 16 7
14 6
1,141 $210,366
$184
$35-45
$200,000
$20,000 5 22
2
2008
FOREWORD
Tourists take up urban space. Other than making us to wait for
another MTR, they also take up our living space by occupying
residential units that have been converted into unlicensed
guesthouses.
Urban academics have been discussing the phenomenon, but no
systematic research has yet been conducted in this respect.
The 30SGroup is willing to take the initiative, and the preliminary
findings are astonishing. Turn to Chapter 3 and see the field
research results.
More significantly, we strive to open our data so that you and
everyone in the civil society can pick it up and continue with the
research. The Group pioneers to introduce the Open Data Method.
All of our research data are open and we expect the civil society to
take up and lead this journey further.
Now, lets turn over the page and face the reality.
The 30S Group
http://www.30sgroup.org/
1
Population, Hong Kong Statistics, Retrieved from
http://www.censtatd.gov.hk/hkstat/sub/so20.jsp
2
Hong Kong Tourism Board, A Statistical Review of Hong Kong Tourism
2013, p.8-9
3
Hong Kong Tourism Board, A Statistical Review of Hong Kong Tourism
2013, p.8-9
4
Hong Kong Tourism Board, Visitor Arrival Statistics, May 2014
5
Ibid
6
Hong Kong Tourism Board, A Statistical Review of Hong Kong Tourism
2013, p.54, Part 3.2
7
Hong Kong Tourism Board, A Statistical Review of Hong Kong Tourism
2013, p.49, Part 3.2
8
Hong Kong Tourism Board, A Statistical Review of Hong Kong Tourism
2010, p.50, Part 3.3
54.3
7.2
VisitorsArrivials
HongKongPopulation
No.ofpeople(Million)
9
Hong Kong Tourism Board, Hotel Room Occupancy Report, June 2014,
(Average from January to June 2014)
10
Census and Statistics Department, Tourism Satellite Account for Inbound
Tourism of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Monthly Digest of Statistics, May 2014,
para 2.4
), H
) and
Table
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11
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um Tariff Ho
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uesthouse
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uesthouse (
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ism Board, H
34
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ximately
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2. 4 DISTRIBUTION
706 of these licensed guesthouses concentrate in Yau Tsim Mong.
76 guesthouses are in Wan Chai, with only a few in other districts.
2. 5 GUESTHOUSE OPERATION IS A GROWING BUSINESS
The business of operating guesthouse records significant growth in
all respects in recent years.
BETTER OCCUPANCY RATE
Occupancy rate of guesthouse went up to 88% by June since
2014
13
. It almost catches up with the occupancy rate of hotels, and
in any event, it has significantly increased by 35% in the past 11
years (compares with 2003
14
)
Graph 2.2 Occupancy rates of Hotel and Guesthouses
13
Hong Kong Tourism Board, Hotel Room Occupancy Report, June 2014,
(Average from January to June 2014)
14
Hong Kong Tourism Board, Hotel Room Occupancy Report, December
2003, section 1
15
Hong Kong Tourism Board, Hotel Room Occupancy Report, December
2013, section 2 Part 2
65
70
75
80
85
90
95
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
June
P
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e
HighTariffAHotel
HighTariffBHotel
MediumTariffHotel
Guesthouse
10
16
Hong Kong Tourism Board, Hotel Room Occupancy Report, June 2014,
(Average from January to June 2014)
11
17
Party size is significant to our calculation. Yet, this figure is not available
from the Tourism Board or any relevant Government departments. The
Group has made enquiry to professionals in the hotel industry, and
understood that this number should be roughly 2.
18
Tourism Board, A Statistical Review of Hong Kong Tourism 2013, p. 54
(Types of Accommodation / All Country 2013)
19
According to the Wikipedia, the Choi Hung Estate contains 7,400 flat
units.
12
rooms
20
, these 21,364 rooms equivalent to roughly 2,273
guesthouses.
Taking into account that Hong Kong has 862 licensed guesthouses
(by June 2014), it is estimated that in every 4 guesthouses
found in town, there is 3 unlicensed.
The above is a very rough estimation based on the best available
data. The estimation may not be accurate but it gives a projection
of the actual demand, as well as the scale of the problem.
3. 2 INVESTIGATION ON UNLICENSED GUESTHOUSES
To satisfy the above unaccounted demand, numerous guesthouses
operate without licensed. The Groups field research reveals their
astonishing number.
6 OF 14 GUESTHOUSES FOUND IN ONE SI NGLE BUI LDI NG ARE
UNLI CENSED
Dundas Street: On Dundas Street, 7 out of 16 guesthouses found
within a 200-meter distance (between Nos. 33-46) are unlicensed.
In just one single Hang Lung Mansion, 6 out of the 14 operating
guesthouses are not found in the Governments license database.
Table 3.1: Guesthouses on Dundas Street, Yau Ma Tei
()
Guesthouse
Address
Building
Floor
With
license
33-35 1 Y
33-35 1 N
44-46 2 N
Q Q Hotel 44-46 4 Y
44-46 4 Y
44-46 4 Y
44-46 5 Y
44-46 6 Y
44-46 N
44-46 7 Y
21
44-46 7 N
20
The average room number of unlicensed guesthouse is deduced from figures
obtainedfromtheTourismBoard.AccordingtotheTourismBoard,asofJune2014,
there are 862 licensed guesthouses in Hong Kong, providing 8,080 rooms, so the
averageroomnumbershouldbe8,080/862=9.4rooms.
21
HADLA,updatedon11August2014
13
44-46 7 N
44-46 7 & 10 N
44-46 9 Y
44-46 9 Y
44-46 10 N
Shanghai Street: Of the 7 guesthouses found within 250m on
Shanghai Street, 6 are unlicensed.
Table 3.2 Guesthouses on Shanghai Street, Yau Ma Tei
()
Guesthouse
Address
Building
Floor
With
license
453-455 - 1 Y
453-455 - 1 N
453-455 - 1 N
459 - N
494-496 - N
512 - 2 N
516 - 2 N
Bute Street: 2 of the 5 guesthouses are unlicensed between Bute
Street No.60 and No.77.
Table 3.3 Guesthouses on Bute Street, Mong Kok
()
Guesthouse
Address
Building
Floor
With
license
75-77 1 Y
75-77 1 Y
64-66 N
60 - 2 Y
60 - 3 N
Although the distribution of guesthouse is quite uneven so the
above information is not capable to show the accurate and
complete picture of unlicensed guesthouse operation, the above
simple street count exercise already revealed the severity of the
problem.
METHODOLOGY
The Groups researchers paid site visits to selected districts and
observed name plates of buildings on a particular part of the
streets to locate the potentially unlicensed guesthouses.
14
Table3.5:MonthlyYieldofResidentialLeasing
Property
Location
Monthly Yield per sq.
ft($)
(Saleable / Gross)
22
Wan Chai 54/42
22
2014 07 17
15
11 12
23
Hunghom 33/28
1
24
Shatin 43/35
25
Quarry Bay 45.9/40.6
2
26
Lai Chi Kok 38.5/27.0
CASE 2
Guesthouse:
Address: 4th Floor, Wah May Building, Block B, No.211 Portland Street, Kowloon
(211 B 4 )
Floor area: 1,141sq. ft
31
Total number of room: 13
32
Room rate: 580
33
Estimated monthly income: HK$210,366
Average rent per sq. ft: $184
CASE 3
Guesthouse:
Address:
Floor area: not available
Total number of room: 10
34
23
ibid.
24
ibid.
25
3 3.25 46 2014 07 09
26
Ibid.
27
Hong Kong Tourism Board, Hotel Room Occupancy Report, June 2014,
Table 3 Hotel Room Occupancy ( By District )
28
Centadata, 16 Years Transaction Web, accessed on 22 July 2014
29
Cold call on 24 July 2014
30
Cold call on 24 July 2014: rent depends on date, around RMB 400
31
Centadata, 16 Years Transaction Web, accessed on 22 July 2014
32
http://www.hkzhan.com/func/common/h-1-344.html
33
Cold call on 24 July, check-in date: 20 Aug 2014; 2
nd
cold call on 17
August 2014, check-in date: 1 Sep 2014
34
http://www.hkzhan.com/func/common/H-1-278.html
16
METHODOLOGY
Floor area of particular premises is found by searching through the
Centadata database.
Room rates and number of rooms of particular guesthouses are
available from the websites which provide booking service.
Researchers also made calls to some of these guesthouses to
double check room rates, extra charges and numbers of room.
Monthly income ( without deducting operative costs) is
calculated with the following formula:
Numbers of room X average room rates X occupancy
rate of that particular district X 30 days
Monthly average income generated per sq. ft is calculated with
the following formula:
Monthly income (without deducting operative costs) /
floor area of particular premises
Limitations:
Seasonal fluctuation of room rates is not reflected in the
results;
Actual occupancy rate varies between different guesthouses;
Floor areas (saleable and gross) of the premises might not be
accurate since no floor plan is available, this will affect the
accuracy of the average profit per sq. ft calculated;
Numbers of room might not be accurate since comprehensive
inspection of the internal structure of the guesthouses is not
available; and
Operative costs vary and no data is available.
3. 4 MORE TO BE FOUND ONLINE
Our online investigation also reveals that many guesthouses
operating in Hong Kong are unlicensed.
179.hk introduced guesthouse accommodation to travellers. 19 out
of 77 guesthouses it introduced are unlicensed. Details are included
in Appendix III.
35
Cold call on 17 August 2014, check-in date 1 Sep 2014
17
4) DISCUSSIONS
The Groups field research indicates the scale of the problem of
unlicensed guesthouses may be more severe than one have
imagined.
4. 1 GUESTHOUSES TAKE UP RESI DENTI AL UNI TS
Stiff competition exists between residential and hotel land uses
because Hong Kong lacks comprehensive hotel land use planning.
Both Hang Lung Mansion and Kingland Apartments, the two
sampling buildings examined by the Group, have almost been
converted entirely to guesthouse towers. According to the Home
Affairs Departments Database of Private Buildings in Hong Kong,
Hang Lung provides 56 and Kingland provides 128 flat units.
Amongst them, more than 100 units of residential flats have now
disappeared from the rental market by the aforesaid conversion.
In other words, tourists displace existing tenants. There is no
available data to estimate the actual floor area taken up by
guesthouses (whether licensed or unlicensed), but the scale must
be tremendous.
4. 2 SHORTAGE OF AFFORDABLE HOUSI NG HI TS GRASSROOTS
Most of these unlicensed guesthouses located in Yau Tsim Mok,
which are areas that have housed many of the lower income class.
A number of residents in these districts cannot afford reasonable
flats, but they are also not benefited from the public housing
system, either because they are not eligible or they have already
been waiting in the long queue. The raging business of guesthouse
displaces grassroots households, and mashes the most vulnerable
group in the housing supply hierarchy.
4. 3 INCREASE SHORTAGE I N HOUSI NG SUPPLY
Hong Kong already faces shortage of affordable housing. The
intrusive occupation by the guesthouse industry further tightened
supply.
4. 4 INCREASE DOMESTI C RENTS
Quite a number of these unlicensed guesthouses situate on or
above the 2
nd
floor of their respective buildings, and they take up
domestic units that were supposed to be let. This intensifies the
shortage of housing supply.
As more units have lost to the guesthouse market, the tightened
supply further drives up the rent.
4. 5 VI NTAGE DMCS DO NOT REGULATE LAND USE
18
36
Eduardo Chibas, Bye Bye Barcelona, Youtube
19
20
5) POLICIES ON GUESTHOUSE
Chapters 3 and 4 of the report reveal the scale of our tourist
accommodation problem. In light of that, what is the Governments
vision on catering the increasing demand and tackling the sustained
shortage? After all, what are our existing policies on hotel land use?
5. 1 POLICY ON HOTEL LAND SUPPLY
Hotel land comes from the following sources:-
1. HOTELONLY SI TES
To increase supply, the Development Bureau introduced in 2008
some pilot measures to facilitate development of hotel land. The
2008-2009 Application List started to include sites specifically
dedicated for hotel land use. However, no follow-up action or
impact assessment has been initiated by the Development Bureau
after the launch of the pilot measures.
On a pilot basis, sites have been included in the 2008-2009
Application List (AL) to be disposed of specifically for hotel
development (the AL Method). The Conditions of Sale of the
respective site will provide that the whole site or part of the
permissible development on the site, as the case may be, will be
restricted to hotel purposes with the amount of GFA for hotel
stipulated (the hotel only sites). The reserve prices for triggering
and auctioning such hotel only sites from the 2008-2009 AL
should be set on the basis of Lands Departments assessed
premium for hotel purposes only.
2. CONVERSI ON
At the same time, applications for lease modifications / land
exchanges for hotel only development was allowed. (the Lease
Modification Method)
According to a report released by the Land Justice League Hong
Kong in February 2014, only 44 hotel projects developed after 2004
acquired land through the AL Method. On the contrary, most of the
other hotel projects acquired land by conversion: 98 residential
blocks and 105 office units have been converted to hotel land use
37
.
The above report also reveals the growing trend of conversion of
existing residential land use to hotel land use by making application
to the Town Planning Board (TPB). 35 hotel projects were
completed between 2004 and 2013 by applying to the TPB for
conversion, and another 65 projects were approved by the TPB and
yet to be built.
37
The Land Justice League , 10 90
, 23 February 2014
21
3. ILLEGAL CONVERSI ON
Meanwhile, many guesthouses are operating without license.
Premises of residential land use are converted to hotel and
guesthouse accommodation illegally.
However, such development also subject to certain limitations:-
RESTRI CTI ONS ON DEVELOPI NG HOTEL LAND
1. TOWN PLANNI NG REQUI REMENTS
Hotel is always permitted under Commercial zones and Other
Specified Uses annotated Mixed Use zones. In a number of other
zones, hotel use requires planning approval by the Town Planning
Board (TPB).
38
2. THE BUI LDI NGS ORDI NANCE
Concessions on GFA - To encourage hotel development for
supporting Hong Kongs tourism industry, the Building Authority
has been exercising discretionary power to grant concessions to
bona fide hotel developments since 1969, mainly in the form of
exempting certain hotel areas from GFA calculation under section
42 of the Buildings Ordinance (Cap. 123) (BO).
The concessions were formalized in November 2000 with the
introduction of Regulation 23A of the Building (Planning)
Regulations (Cap. 123F) under the BO, whereby a hotel
development will be treated as a non-domestic development so as
to enjoy a higher plot ratio and site coverage. In addition, certain
areas and facilities essential for hotel operation could be
disregarded for GFA calculation
39
.
3. LAND LEASE
The lease conditions governing each of these lots may be different
depending on when the lease concerned is executed and the
prevailing considerations at the time of execution:-
For instance, some old leases do not contain user clause and the
land use is virtually unrestricted. Lessee of such leases has the
flexibility to determine which use to pursue in developing the land
as far as lease conditions are concerned.
In other cases, the lease may contain a user clause, such as non-
industrial (residential use is allowed under such a user clause),
non-industrial excluding private residential and hotel purposes,
to cite a few examples.
38
Development Bureau, Administration's paper on development and
operation of hotels, CB(1)580/12-13(03), para. 3
39
ibid, para.12
22
40
ibid, para.6
41
ibid, para.7
42
ibid, para.. 8
43
Home Affairs Department, Consultation Document on Review of the
Hotel and Guesthouse Accommodation Ordinance, para. 1.1
23
44
In accordance with section 4(1) of the Ordinance, the Secretary for
Home Affairs is the Authority of the Ordinance.
45
Home Affairs Department, Consultation Document on Review of the
Hotel and Guesthouse Accommodation Ordinance, para. 1.2
46
2006 10 28
24
*There is no official statistics on fines, the above figures come
from the researchers review on press release issued by the
Government. Please note that the Government press releases
may not cover all the cases of conviction.
Table 5.2 Enforcement against Unlicensed Guesthouse Operation
Table 5.3 shows that only a few of the convicted were sentenced to
imprisonment, and none of them were put into prison for more
than 4 months.
Table 5.3 Convicted persons being sentenced to imprisonment
47
2009 2010 2011 2012
2013 (30
Jun)
4 months 1 0 0 0 0
3 months 0 1 2 0 0
2 months 2 2 0 4 2
6 weeks 0 0 0 2 0
Below 1 month 0 3 1 1 1
Total 3 6 3 7 3
47
, 10 July 2013
48
Audit Commission, Report No. 47 of the Director of Audit, 23 October
2006, Chapter 8 Licensing of hotels and guesthouses
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Q1
Complaints 445 366 696 1418 - -
Enforcement
action
2430 2678 3125 6791 9889 3217
Prosecution 39 38 53 128 171 46
Conviction 36 44 39 110 161 43
25
to 30 June); in 343 cases (19% of 1,842), the time span was more
than 500 days.
5. POLI CY ON REPORTI NG
The Enforcement Unit of the OLA is responsible for taking
enforcement action against unlicensed establishments. Operators of
unlicensed guesthouses are sued under HAGAO Part II Section 5
Restriction on operating hotel or guesthouse unless exempted or
licensed. For guesthouses borrowing licenses, operators or
managers will be sued under HAGAO Part VII Section 21 Offences
in relation to certificates of exemption and licences.
The Enforcement Unit obtains information about suspected
unlicensed establishments from four sources :-
(1) complaints from the public,
(2) referrals from other government departments,
(3) referrals from the Building Safety Unit, and
(4) cases identified by the Enforcement Unit by field surveillance
and from search of advertisements.
Enforcement actions are taken under the Procedural Guidelines on
Conducting Policing Inspection and Particulars for Prosecution
Inspection for Suspected Unlicensed Operations. A team comprising
normally two Licensing Inspectors conducts one or more
preliminary inspections at the premises concerned to ascertain
whether there is evidence, prima facie, that an unlicensed
establishment is in operation. If there is such evidence and the
operator has not been warned before, a warning letter is issued; if
he or she has been warned before, the Unit will proceed to conduct
in-depth inspections. A team comprising normally three Licensing
Inspectors will collect evidence for prosecution. Investigation report
is then prepared and sent to the Department of Justice. If the
evidence collected is sufficient, the Unit instigates prosecution
under the HAGAO by applying for a summons.
26
6) RECOMMENDATIONS
The influx of visitors continues to put Hong Kong's tourism capacity
to test. Can we make a pass? What should we do?
6. 1 CONTROL THE GROWTH OF TOURISM
In 2013 Hong Kong received a total of 54.3M visitors, while Inner
Paris received only 29.3M. We have almost doubled Pariss volume.
Notably, Paris provides 81,000 hotel rooms, while Hong Kong
provides only 79,000 rooms. Although the occupancy rate is not
comparable, the shortage is obvious but incurable in short time
given the necessary time lapse between planning and hotel building.
Building more hotels is the quick answer but it might not be the
best answer considering Hong Kong already experiences shortage
in housing land supply. Given the long queue awaiting public
housing, the Governments effort in locating proper housing sites
should give priority to the local needy grassroots, instead of
locating accommodation for tourists.
In light of the above, the better idea would be to control the growth
of accommodation demand of tourist by reducing their numbers.
6. 2 COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGY ON HOTEL LAND USE
Hong Kong lacks comprehensive hotel land use planning and has
exercised no systematic control on hotel land supply. Facing a
drastic increase of tourist population, it is most in need that Hong
Kong starts to have her comprehensive strategy on hotel land use.
It is projected that visitor arrivals in 2017 would exceed 70 million
and that in 2023 would be over 100 million
49
. Assuming that the
percentage of overnight visitor arrivals remains at 48.9% and the
overnight visitor average length of stay is still 3.5, it could be
estimated that 445,400 sq. m of hotel land are needed by 2017. If
the land supplied falls below this figure, it is anticipated that some
existing residential and commercial lands will be taken up for
tourism
50
.
49
Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, Assessment Report on
Hong Kong's Capacity to Receive Tourists, December 2013.
50
Calculation: Number of visitors*nights they stayed:
70,000,000*48.9%*(3.5+1) = 154035000
Number of double bed room needed: 154035000/365/2 = 211,007
Number of double bed room needed to be built (Assume the existing hotel
rooms can accommodate 2 people on average): 211,007 - 78738 =
132269
Taking the area of one standard double bed room as 20 square meters,
and excluding the the auxiliary operational facilities, the area of hotel room
needed is: 132,269*20 = 2,645,380 square meters. Applying the same
27
6. 3 COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT ON TOURISM IMPACT
There is little evaluation on the cultural and environmental impacts
of tourism development in the recent Assessment Report on Hong
Kongs Capacity to Receive Tourists
51
released by the Government.
In its Chapter 7 Impact on the Livelihood of the Community, only
the number of criminal offences by mainland visitors was inspected.
However, it is obvious that the impact of tourist on livelihood of
communities does not limit to criminal offences.
Take the report Defining, Measuring and Evaluating Carrying
Capacity in European Tourism Destinations
52
which was
commissioned to the European Commission, Directorate-General
for Environment, Nuclear Safety and Civil Protection as an example,
physical ecological impacts, social-demographic impacts and
political-economic impacts are examined.
The assessment was divided into areas with distinct geographical
characteristics. Indicators for social-demographic impacts include:
crowding-out, breakdown of host community values,
tourists/residents conflicts, overcrowding and occasional irritation
of local population, and adjustment of residents to tourists' life
styles. Indicators for political-economic impacts included: cost of
living for residents, land-use conflicts between activities,
seasonality of employment and income, as well as dependence on
tourism activity.
We suggest the government to carry out a complete assessment on
tourism which should be done district by district, as tourist
attractions and facilities are unevenly distributed. A set of
comprehensive indicators which can truly reflect the livelihood of
Hong Kong people and the health of economy is required. The
assessment just finished only reflected the trend of tourism
development, and the capacity of tourist attractions and facilities,
neglecting its impact on local people. It also lacks reflection on
whether it is healthy for our economy to continually depending on
tourism.
6. 4 ENFORCEMENT AND PROSECUTION
28
The Consultation Document on the Hotel and Guesthouse
Accommodation Ordinance
53
, suggested several amendments to
facilitate prosecution of unlicensed guesthouses establishment. It
proposed that (1) circumstantial evidence to be regarded as
sufficient to instigate a prosecution, (2) the OLA could apply to the
Magistrates Court for warrants to facilitate its public officers to
enter into, and break in if necessary, individual premises for
inspection and enforcement actions, (3) heavier penalties and
closure of premises would be implemented.
We welcome the amendment, though it is notable that the Audit
Commission has already recommended the Department of Home
Affairs in 2006 to consider drawing up guidelines that set out the
circumstances under which the OLA would invoke HAGAO Section
20(1) of the HAGAO to make an order in writing directing that the
hotel or the guesthouse shall close and shall cease to be used as a
hotel or a guesthouse.
53
Home Affairs Department, Consultation Document on Review of the
Hotel and Guesthouse Accommodation Ordinance
54
Justin Edwards, Launching Research: Exploring the Emerging Impacts of
Open Data in Developing Countries, accessed on 15 July 2014
55
Joel Gurin , Big data and open data: what's what and why does it
matter?, accessed on 15 July 2014
56
Tim Davies, Open Data Barometer 2013 Global Report, page 9
30
Transparency and accountability allowing citizens and
civil society to see, understand and monitor better what their
governments and the private sector are doing, challenging
corruption or unaccountable activity, and finding opportunities
to influence policy and
Inclusion and empowerment enabling marginalized
groups to get involved in the political process, and removing
imbalances of power created through information asymmetry.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We are thankful to the kind assistance generously provided by Mr.
Chan Kim Ching .
RESEARCH TEAM
MR LAURENCE LI LUJ EN
Mr Laurence Li, the convenor and one of the founders of the 30S
Group, is a practicing barrister focusing on financial and financial
services law. He is a member of the Financial Services
Development Council and convener of its research committee. He
serves as a judge on the Regulatory Tribunal of the Qatar Financial
Centre in Doha, Qatar, and is an Honourary Fellow of the Asian
Institute of International Financial Law at the University of Hong
Kong. He is also a member of the Town Planning Board and the
Council of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
MS. FUNG WAN YIN KIMBERLY
FUNG Wan Yin Kimberly is currently studying towards a Bachelor of
Social Sciences in Urban Studies at CUHK. She is now the
committee member of the Hong Kong Urban Laboratory (
), which aims to develop diverse spatial practices and widen
public imagination through art. Projects included "Once There Was
a Factory" (2013) () and "Non-indigenous Lives - A
four-part installation" (2014)(
).
She believes that if you constantly strive to give your best effort to
something, you will gain insight into it (). She
hopes to become as creative and competent as members of the
Lunar Society of Birmingham, so that she can transform
imagination into real positive changes in the society.
MS. CHAN YUK FUNG MELODY
Grew up in this metropolitan, the development of urban landscape
and evolution of the city have always remained the interest of
research of CHAN Yuk Fung Melody.
This summer she proposed to the Group to conduct the current
research, and she is most happy to find the Home Affairs
Department shared the same view that the situation requires
immediate and urgent attention, when the latter announced the
commencement of consultation on the amendment of HAGAO
recently.
32
Appendix I
NumberofRoomsinHotelandGuesthousesinthepastdecade
57
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
2014
June
HighTariff A
Hotel
9,473 9,473 10,808 10,809 10,855 13,570 15,116 16,052 17,181 17,522 17,522 17,522
HighTariff B
Hotel
15,786 16,073 18,616 18,478 18,951 18,468 21,638 21,432 24,315 25,258 26,999 27,067
Medium
Tariff Hotel
11,465 11,038 11,475 14,435 15,496 16,735 17,432 17,591 17,072 19,566 20,048 21,234
Unclassified
Hotel
1,409 2,544 2,967 3,406 6,279 6,031 5,531 5,353 4,262 5,048 5,448 5,243
Total
number of
hotel
38,133 39,128 43,866 47,128 51,581 54,804 59,627 60,428 62,830 67,339 70,017 71,066
Guesthouse
4,803 5,234 5,025 5,384 5,068 5,469 5,759 5,926 6,211 6,818 7,630 8,080
57
Hong Kong Tourism Board, Hotel Room Occupancy Report, June 2014
33
Appendix II
Room Rate of Hotel and Guesthouse in the past decade
58
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
2014 Jan-
June
HighTariff A
Hotel
1,171 1,356 1,611 1,906 2,141 2,106 1,808 1,965 2,229 2,457 2,382 2,446
HighTariff B
Hotel
517 638 732 832 934 974 779 946 1,129 1,228 1,201 1,204
Medium Tariff
Hotel
334 414 460 537 570 586 481 585 710 781 758 740
Average rate of
hotel
674 803 934 1,091 1,215 1,222 1,023 1,165 1,356 1,489 1,447 1,463
Guesthouse
254 285 286 309 322 352 330 351 423 510 552 546
58
Hong Kong Tourism Board, Hotel Room Occupancy Report, June 2014
Appendix III
Unlicensed Guesthouse Introduced on 179.hk
59
179.hk
Guesthouse District Building Floor
18-24 5
37 10
312 3
26B G
105 3
376-380 1
12 3
4-6 -
33 - -
43 4
29-29A
- 7
36-42 6
101 -
80 8
83-97 7
52-54 13
731-733 15
6-8 -
78 2
59
Retrieved and checked on 13 July 2014