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Amy Chew

THE Hong Kong Hotels Association has urged the Government to use the five per cent room tax to attract more visitors instead of pouring the money into its own coffers.

  Speaking after the association's annual general meeting, chairman Felix Bieger said yesterday the Government should pay more attention to the value of tourism to the Hong Kong economy.

  ''Our plea for more imported labour was not successful and we hope for a better result next year,'' he said.

  He said Financial Secretary Hamish Macleod refused to heed its call to abolish the airport tax and had continued to raise taxes on alcohol, a disincentive to tourism.

  He also disagreed with Governor Chris Patten's lumping hotels with the catering industry in his plan for more functional constituency seats.

  ''It could be argued that by 1995 we may have a small New Territories restaurateur representing an industry which has invested more than $100 billion and has a workforce of over 50,000. That's a ridiculous proposition,'' Mr Bieger said.

  He also appealed to Chief Secretary-designate Anson Chan to give more recognition to the industry.

  ''She certainly knows all about us, and our problems, from her days as Secretary for Economic Services,'' he said.

  Mr Bieger noted some of the changes which have taken place since 1974 when he was last chairman of the association.

  The number of tourists had leapt from 1.7 million to more than seven million this year and was expected to reach 10 million by the turn of the century, Mr Bieger said.

  The industry, which previously had 30 hotels with 10,000 rooms, had expanded to 80 hotels with 35,000 rooms, he said, but added that the capacity would be insufficient to meet future demand.



Use room tax to bring in tourists, hotel association tells Government