Complaints held at bay as tourists cruise and dine

James Lee

About 50 mainland tourists had meals on a harbor cruise as the travel sector attempted a "win-win solution" to cut crowds in To Kwa Wan and Hung Hom after a surge in visitors drew complaints.

A tour bus arrived at the Kwun Tong vehicular ferry pier yesterday morning carrying tourists who would have lunch on the Harbour Cruise Bauhinia during a 45-minute outing.

After their meal the tourists headed to the deck for sightseeing. One visitor from landlocked Heilongjiang said he enjoyed the views.

A tour member from Hunan, another landlocked province, said: "This is better than eating at a restaurant since there aren't any extra charges for the cruise."

This came a week after the Travel Industry Authority sought to respond to complaints about tourists gathered outside restaurants in areas including Sung On Street in Hung Hom.

Besides taking to the water new measures included allowing tourists at least 30 minutes for meals, requiring groups to reserve tables in advance and having restaurants help with crowd control.

But Harbor Cruise Bauhinia director of operations Rockie Ip Ting-kwok said it would take three times as many customers for the cruise operator to break even.

"There were about 50 tour members on board, which amounts to five tables," he said. "But we will need more than 15 tables before we start making a profit."

The local agency in charge said it had to bear additional catering costs of about HK$1,000 for the cruise arrangement after a HK$20 increase for each member as tour fees had already been collected.

Hong Kong Tourism Association executive director Timothy Chui Ting-pong said: "I hope the cruise dining arrangement will bring more variety to tourists' experience while attending to the concerns of locals."

It is understood the cruise dining that began on Tuesday and runs as a trial until tomorrow saw the first group chose the cheapest set at HK$64 with seven dishes, including soup and rice, out of four options available.

Additional dishes were available on the HK$90 and HK$130 sets, while a HK$160 set included imitation shark fin soup.

Annie Fonda, executive director of the TIA, welcomed new experiences for tourists while minimizing the effect of visitors on locals in their neighborhoods.

As tourists dined at sea, another group lunched at a restaurant on Sung On Street and burned joss paper for tomb-sweeping day offerings.

Shi, from Mianyang city in Sichuan, said Hong Kong's dishes were not spicy enough, "but there were eight dishes, which is better than what we got on a Beijing tour."

Ma, from Inner Mongolia, said the food was "not bad, but definitely not as good as the food at home," and she was given enough time to finish her lunch.

Li, another tour member, said she was only able to stay at each stop for 30 minutes to one hour, though "at some spots we had to leave right after we arrived."

Neighborhood residents said the queuing situation improved but the hygiene issue persisted.

"There's still a lot of trash and cigarette butts on the ground," a Hung Hom resident said.

cjames.lee@singtaonewscorp.com