Hong Kong chief John Lee stated on Thursday he had changed two senior officers in an surprising transfer that he stated would maximise social and financial advantages and assist town “catch up” with different tourism locations.
Hong Kong has struggled to revive its enchantment amongst worldwide vacationers after generally violent mass protests in 2019 and strict journey guidelines imposed through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lee advised reporters at a press convention that he had been “observing the scenario for fairly a while” earlier than deciding to switch Kevin Yeung, secretary for tradition, sports activities and tourism and Lam Sai-hung, secretary for transport and logistics.
“We have now gone via the epidemic, protests in 2019, we have to catch up. I need to create the largest societal and financial profit for Hong Kong,” Lee stated.
Mable Chan will take over as transport secretary, whereas Rosanna Regulation would be the new sports activities, tradition and tourism secretary, Lee stated. Each girls have labored for the federal government for greater than 30 years.
“We try to do higher on a regular basis,” Lee added. “The 2 new secretaries will make good use of their management and their capability to elucidate insurance policies clearly.”
The federal government has been attempting to attract worldwide guests with a sequence of sporting and cultural occasions in addition to giant scale conferences.
Authorities are planning a big scale panda carnival from Dec. 11 to 21 to capitalise on the six pandas presently dwelling at a theme park within the metropolis. Two had been born in Hong Kong earlier this yr, whereas Beijing loaned two extra to town in September.
Some 36.68 million vacationers have visited Hong Kong within the 10 months to the tip of October 2024, in response to newest authorities knowledge. Authorities have stated they hope to succeed in 46 million arrivals this yr.
The numbers stay beneath the highs seen earlier than the protests and the pandemic. In 2018, Hong Kong recorded greater than 65 million arrivals.
