HK$6m pledged to dragon boat carnival
The Tourism Board is confident it has secured about half of the HK$12.5 million needed to organise this year's Dragon Boat Carnival in July. The board is contributing an additional HK$2.5 million to promote the three-day event at the Tsim Sha Tsui East waterfront.
Securing corporate sponsors has been difficult, especially with many businesses just emerging from the worst economic downturn in decades. The board has long wanted to make the races a major event in the annual tourism and sporting calendar, but financial problems nearly saw the event called off in 2004.
Held since 1976, the competition was originally organised by the board but was handed over to the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Association in 2000. In 2005, the races were relocated to the Tsim Sha Tsui East waterfront after almost a decade at Sha Tin's Shing Mun River.
The mega event will bring the races back to Victoria Harbour, association chairman Dr Raymond Ma Siu-wing said.
'The synergy generated by the partnership between the two organisations, on top of the far-reaching global network of the HKTB, will bring Hong Kong's dragon boat races to a greater audience. In the long run, the event will be conductive to the development of the dragon boat culture in the world.'
So far, 24 overseas and 50 local teams have signed up for the races. The board sent invitations to about 2,300 organisations in 70 countries around the world.
The board conservatively estimates that this year's event will attract about 40,000 spectators.
Visitor numbers up to April 5 this year have risen 16.2 per cent year on year, with the number of mainlanders up 18 per cent. The number of long-haul visitors rose 9.1 per cent while short-haul visitor numbers are up 14.2 per cent, according to board data.
The races, from July 22 to 25, are timed to allow teams to also participate in dragon boat races at Macau's Nam Van Nautical Centre from July 28 to August 1.
According to board chairman James Tien Pei-chun, the Hong Kong event's carnival format will feature a fancy T-shirt contest, a biergarten with beer-drinking competitions, food stalls and music performances as well as a new charity race benefitting recovered cancer patients.
The races will take place in six of eight lanes along the Tsim Sha Tsui East waterfront. The length of the races is 640 metres.
In the event of a typhoon, the races will be held two weeks later at Shing Mun River.
