Tourist facilities near limit, Secretary for Development Paul Chan says

Secretary for Development Paul Chan Mo-po warned yesterday that the city's tourist facilities were almost saturated - a day after a government report forecast that visitor numbers would double to 100 million by 2023.

"To be honest, the capacity of our facilities for tourists is now close to [the limit], otherwise we wouldn't already be feeling that mainland tourists travelling here on the individual visit scheme were causing us inconvenience," Chan told the RTHK radio programme Accountability.

And he said that when it came to allocation of land, housing took priority over tourism.

On Friday, a government report predicted that Hong Kong could expect 70 million tourists by 2017 - up from 54.3 million last year - and 100 million within a decade.

Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Greg So Kam-leung said the city could cope with an increase, bringing an angry response from critics.

Chan called for a thorough review of the development of the tourism industry. "Where should it stand among other industries? The growth of every industry needs land."

He also noted that although Hong Kong was a shopping destination for tourists, retail space had only increased by single-digit percentages since the introduction of the individual visit scheme in 2003.