ORGANISERS of next year's leather fair are considering mooring a luxury liner in Victoria Harbour to prevent a clash of dates with the Rugby Sevens causing a hotel-room shortage.
The territory's biggest trade fair and the sporting event, celebrating its 20th anniversary, will be held back-to-back at the end of March and the number of international visitors in town for both events is expected to be more than 36,000.
The number clearly exceeds the 33,000-room capacity of the territory's already strained hotel industry and some organisers are fearing visitors will stay away from the events for fear of sleeping in the street.
Leather traders are fuming over the March 25 and 26 dates allocated to Sevens organisers, saying they directly clash with the Asia Pacific Leather Fair, which commences on the 27th.
Traders feel business at the fair will suffer as a result and recent meetings have suggested the possibility of bringing in luxury liners, similar to those used during the Barcelona Olympics, to make up the room numbers.
The Hong Kong Trade Fair Group general manager Michael Duck said the annual fair's dates were pre-booked up to the year 2000 three years ago and he was outraged by the dates allocated to the Sevens.
'We have had to let traders and visitors know through our promotion leaflets that rooms will be extremely tight for next year.
