The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government today welcomed the joint promulgation of the Culture & Tourism Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area by the Ministry of Culture & Tourism, the Office of the Leading Group for the Development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the People’s Government of Guangdong Province.

The plan sets out the directions for the overall cultural and tourism development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and guides the development of the bay area into an exchange hub for culture of the East and the West and a world-class tourism destination.

It also helps strengthen the positions of Hong Kong as an international cultural metropolis and an international tourism hub.

The Hong Kong SAR Government thanked the Ministry of Culture & Tourism for according importance to the views it raised in the course of formulating the plan.

Based on the plan's guiding directions, the Hong Kong SAR Government will proactively integrate into the country’s overall development.

It will also work with the Ministry of Culture & Tourism, the Department of Culture & Tourism of Guangdong Province and the culture and tourism authorities of the bay area cities, to jointly implement the major work in the plan to develop a world-class bay area for culture and leisure.

On culture, the Hong Kong SAR Government said the joint cultural development, exchange and building of the bay area put forward in the “Jointly Developing a Cultured Bay Area” chapter in the plan will further enhance the development, exchange and communication of arts and culture performances and audience amongst the cities there.

This will also create opportunities for arts and culture organisations in the bay area to explore the international market together, it added.

The broader performing arts market in the bay area will also enhance the quality of productions of the arts and culture sector in Hong Kong. In the long run, this will help achieve the goal of building the bay area into a quality living circle for living, working and travelling, as mentioned in the plan.

On tourism, the Hong Kong SAR Government fully supports the various measures taking forward the bay area's tourism development in the “Building a Bay Area for Leisure” chapter of the plan.

They include developing more distinctive bay area tourism products and itineraries, jointly promoting bay area multi-destination tourism, driving the tourism development of cruises and yachting, strengthening the co-operation of tourism market regulation of the bay area as well as the nurturing of tourism talents.

Implementation of these measures will attract more overseas tourists to the bay area and promote the high-quality development of its tourism industry as well as construct a world-class bay area for travelling.

The Hong Kong SAR Government pointed out that both the plan and the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area promulgated in February 2019 expressly support Hong Kong in developing into an international tourism hub and a core demonstration zone for multi-destination tourism.

When the COVID-19 pandemic is over, the Hong Kong SAR Government will continue to leverage Hong Kong’s strengths as Asia’s world city and best utilise its well-established marine, land and air connections as well as rich tourism resources to attract overseas tourists to embark on bay area multi-destination journeys through Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong Tourism Board will jointly promote the bay area tourism brand and feature Hong Kong as a star destination for multi-destination tourism with Guangdong and Macau in due course.