Tourist diversion at HZMB feasible
Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau Tang-wah said on Wednesday the special administrative region government is considering adding tourist service facilities such as shops and restaurants on the Boundary Crossing Facilities Island of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge to cater to visitors whose sole purpose is to experience the bridge. The provision of shops and restaurants in the Hong Kong Port checkpoint building will definitely help ease the problem of overcrowding, which Tung Chung residents now face as a result of the influx of visitors after the opening of the mega bridge. As many as 20 percent of the passengers who travel on the boundary-crossing bridge are reportedly just “bridge worshippers” and have no intention of visiting Hong Kong’s downtown areas. They will skip Tung Chung, the nearest town area that can meet their needs for food and drink, if they can do this within the port building, saving them time and money.
This makes it imperative for the government to speed up the feasibility study on the topside development of the Boundary Crossing Facilities Island. The island’s development, when pushed through and implemented, can provide as many as 500,000 square meters of space for business operations, as well as other economic activities. The topside development of the island will also bring in the additional benefit of creating hundreds of new employment opportunities for Tung Chung residents.
In reply to questions by lawmakers at the Legislative Council, Yau also noted that other measures to ease the tourist flow at Tung Chung had already proved effective.
Since the HZMB officially opened four weeks ago many people have been surprised by its popularity to tourists from the mainland. The number of registered HZMB tour groups alone has soared from 70 in the first week to 700 this week. Some local residents in Tung Chung started complaining about the presence of so many tourists, who often inconvenienced locals because existing services cannot handle the sudden surge in visitors. The SAR government immediately asked bus companies to increase dispatches from Tung Chung to downtown areas to reduce the time people have to wait for their rides. Once again Hong Kong has shown it is capable of solving such problems at short notice.
For a monumental piece of infrastructure like the HZMB, the most important thing is quality and durability, followed by profitability and beauty. So far the HZMB has lived up to its billing as a “wonder of the modern world” despite some unforeseen inconveniences. And all parties concerned are prepared to address any new issue as soon as it emerges. We built the HZMB because our future development needs it.
There is no guarantee problems won’t pop up in the future. But these will prove to be only teething pains. This mega infrastructure will benefit the city tremendously in the long term as it facilitates the SAR’s integration into the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, allowing it to play a significant role in the 11-city cluster’s development.