Lantau group looks to court mainland China tourists
The alliance of businesses wants to develop the island to help divert visitors from overcrowded areas, but its plan has been met with scepticism
A business alliance's proposal to develop Lantau Island into a commercial zone to divert tourists from overcrowded districts has sparked heated debate.
The plan by the Lantau Economic Development Alliance - which comprises 10 Lantau-based companies and community groups such as Disneyland, AsiaWorld-Expo and Ngong Ping 360 - has been met with scepticism from district councillors who challenge its feasibility.
The alliance's vice-chairman, Andrew Kam Min-ho, yesterday said the Hong Kong-ZhuhaiMacau bridge's expected completion in 2016 was an opportunity to divert mainland tourists from the busy Causeway Bay and Tsim Sha Tsui areas to Lantau Island.
"The problem at present is that the tourists are overcrowding some places," Kam, who is also Disneyland's managing director, told a Commercial Radio show. "And the rents have become high because of it. Even the MTR is more crowded [in the busy districts]."
He said that if more shopping malls were built in Tung Chung, a new town on Lantau, tourists would be drawn there and more jobs could be created for the locals. "Sometimes tourists don't just want to buy high-end products … Shops on Lantau Island could sell more popular commodities [and] tourists could buy daily products there [too]," he said.
The alliance's chairman Allen Ha, who is also the AsiaWorld-Expo chief executive, said the alliance recently submitted its proposal to the government.