A lawmaker has highlighted the need for Hong Kong to have more large-scale, staple infrastructure in order to deepen and broaden its tourist base. Michael Tien made the remarks on Saturday on a Commercial Radio Programme, where he pointed out that even though tourism has only contributed less than 10 percent to the local GDP in recent years, it's crucial to other sectors, like retail and the food and beverage industry. Tien emphasised that, rather than relying on mainland visitors, Hong Kong can set up more permanent attractions like Disneyland and Kai Tak to draw more visitors from around the world. Kai Tak - the largest sports park in Hong Kong with 50,000 seats - is set to open its doors next March, and will host British rock band Coldplay a month later. "Kai Tak so far, and Disneyland are about the only two continuous attractions we have to attract people from overseas to come to Hong Kong to spend, to consume, and we need a few more of this," he said. "I've been advocating for a race track with reclamation at Penny's Bay. That could be a third long-term tourist infrastructure...the beauty about Disneyland and Kai Tak is that they're perpetual - they can generate new economic activity, day after day." Separately, Tien, who's also a businessman, called on the government to offer two years of rates concessions to ease the burden on tenants. He said many are paying "astronomical rents" for agreements that were signed at a time when tourist traffic was much higher. "We are now currently paying rental to support actually a much larger consumer base, dating back to 2017 and 2018, when a lot of mainlanders were coming down to Hong Kong to spend money, so we lost about 30 percent on that consumer base," he said. "Therefore, based on a free market economy, the rents are going to come down. So we need breathing space of about two years to have new tenancy to be in effect. So this is the two-year relief that I am asking the government to help us on."
