Community-Based Tourism (C-B.T) for Lantau

1. Introduction

The South West New Territories Development Strategy Review and the VISTOUR study identified Lantau as an area with tourism development potential. Provided that such development is responsibly and sustainably implemented, it could benefit the people of Lantau to a degree far greater than allowing the intrusion of urban tourism models to change its unique character.

Lantau has unique latent attributes which, with leadership and vision, could be harnessed to bring C-B.T benefits to Lantau and Hong Kong as a whole.

This paper explores these possibilities.

2. Definition of Community-Based Tourism (C-B.T)

One international group, an organisation devoted to the responsible development and promotion of 'C-B.T', provides a definition that can be used for C-B.T: "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and sustains the well-being of local people". Thus, C-B.T:
  • is rooted in the local community, and most of its proceeds remain in the local community;
  • teaches the visitor to behave responsibly and respectfully toward nature and native cultures;
  • focuses on the natural environment and the local cultures';
  • gives the visitor an understanding and appreciation of these without degrading them. It is therefore by definition sustainable.
In summary, C-B.T is a fundamentally positive experience which provides economic benefits to local communities, increases the visitor's enjoyment, and protects the environment.

3. Tourism and Lantau

3. 1 Present situation

Lantau is already acknowledged as a premier outdoor recreational area for Hong Kong people. "The mountain scenery, attractive coastal areas and environment of Lantau have long been an attractive rural recreational resource for Hong Kong people". (VISTOUR Study conducted for the Hong Kong Tourist Association (HKTA))

This resource is currently exploited through beach visits, walking, camping and biking trips, holiday cottage rentals, and visits simply to take in the island's scenery. Visits to the Giant Buddha often include walks or hikes in the hills around Ngong Ping. Outdoor focused tourism is dominated by Hong Kong residents, and heavily concentrated at weekends due to the work week schedule.

At present, Lantau may be near its carrying capacity for weekend tourism, based on the capacity of existing ferry and bus services. However, weekday visitation levels are much lower.

3.2 Future possibilities

The vision of C-B.T on Lantau is based on the island's unparalleled natural beauty, its cultural and religious traditions, and an awareness of the need to respect its carrying capacity. This must be of an appropriate scale, appropriately distributed & managed and the benefits must accrue to Lantau people.

Three developments are thus clearly desirable:

  1. Create a greater appreciation of the 'non-Buddha' tourism resources of Lantau and develop new resources. See Appendices A and B for suggestions.
  2. Encourage overseas visitors to explore Lantau;
  3. Distribute visitation more evenly throughout the week, to provide a more stable form of work and income for local service providers, and make more efficient use of resources such as restaurants, rental cottages, beaches and walking trails.

4. Next Steps

Careful planning and visitor management are key ingredients for its successful development. Whilst C-B.T and resources on Lantau are already being exploited, to some extent, for local and overseas visitors, improved management of resources could increase benefits to the local economy and also better protect the natural and cultural resources.

In every part of the world, C-B.T has had to be encouraged from above at the outset, until tourists became aware of the resources available and local people understood the advantages of promoting themselves as environmentally and culturally sensitive.

A few examples of areas where official support and leadership would be essential:

  1. Training of local tourism service providers in guiding, language, environmentally friendly facility planning and management, to ensure that facilities and activities are planned and run in ways attractive to target groups (see Kwok 1998, Lau 1998 on the need for training in the tourism industry).
  2. Establishing an award scheme or green seal certification scheme for environmentally friendly operators
  3. Developing brochures to promote the C-B.T resources of Lantau and educate visitors to be environmentally and culturally sensitive when visiting the island. These should be distributed in HKTA offices, at hotels, at ferry piers, and at Lantau restaurants, cottage rental agencies, Country Park visitor centres and other areas where tourists will pick them up.
  4. Providing small loans or otherwise encouraging development of appropriate new types of facilities and attractions. Suggestions for these are at Appendix B.
  5. Helping local tourism operators (including cottage renters, restaurateurs, ...) to organise into professional groups
The very first step, however, is to create an fuller understanding in the minds of those in authority of the benefits to Hong Kong and the islands' population. This can only be done by all members of the community working together, creating a plan and lobbying in the right places.

Appendix A.

Areas and activities with high existing value for C-B.T on Lantau.

This list is just a start:

  • Mui Wo: easy access from ferry. many restaurants, large beach, easy walks, historical sites. Huge potential for developing other attractions & amenities. Potential in water-front near ferry and Rural Committee Road.

    Need to attract people to stay rather than take the buses elsewhere.

  • Pui O: restaurants, large beach, walks around Chi Ma Wan headland.

  • South Lantau beaches: easy access by buses and car in many cases, good swimming, beautiful scenery.

  • Offshore recreational fishing

  • Country Parks and associated trail networks: stunning views, different levels of walks and hikes, camping opportunities, easy access to many parts of the trail network. The 70km Lantau trail and many others are well established.

  • Po Lin Monastery and surrounding countryside: traditional Buddhist culture, architecture and art; both easy and challenging country walks; beautiful scenery; existing scenic trail access, also with religious elements.

  • Tai 0: beautiful natural setting; opportunities to see and learn about traditional fishing village life; Hong Kong's only stilt houses; temples, egretry, mangroves, river, coastal walks. Boat access from Tung Chung. Intimate small village atmosphere.

  • Dolphin watching off Lantau coast: since the dolphins are closely associated with Lantau, dolphin watching can be promoted as part of the Lantau C-B.T "package"

  • Fan Lau: hiking, swimming, and heritage features

Appendix B

Encouraging development of appropriate new types of facilities and attractions.

Examples:

  • The water-front near the ferry terminal for a strolling, sit-out area and cafés
  • Rural Committee Road. Beautify and bring more tourist shops and cafés.
  • A Lantau Arts Festival. This is already being planned by LantauPost for 2004 but, with the right support could grow into an annual event that could attract many visitors.
  • "The Beauty of Lantau" photographic competition. Also being planned for 2004
  • Developments in Tai O to fit in with the scale and atmosphere of the village. Bed-and-breakfast type facilities may well be appropriate.
  • Increasing the scale of ferry services to Tai O. This is preferable to increasing road traffic, and fits in better with the village's maritime history.
  • Development in Tai O must also be co-ordinated with mangrove replanting plans as, in the long-term, the mangrove replanting site will have considerable C-B.T potential.
  • A small boat sailing centre at Silvermine Beach. Other water sports and training
  • Show tourists to Disney 'a different side of Hong Kong'
  • Change flats into 'Pensiones' - Bed & Breakfast
  • Make bicycle tracks
  • Nature classes for students including nature education centres in former village schools
  • Build a 'Nature Centre' behind Silvermine Beach (Perhaps include history and culture also)
  • Turn the Luk Tei Tong watch tower into a museum
  • Have a Sunday market on the waterfront somewhere: anyone can sell anything
  • Sell photos
  • Horticultural society
  • Have an annual 'beautiful villages' competition.
  • Develop more interest in school children.
  • The Lantau schools should be a greater part of the community
  • Give children projects that are part of the community
  • Show the childrens' arts and crafts work.
  • Create a 'Community Centre' Whilst there are offices, at present, none of them are the centre of community interests
  • Develop seminars on interesting topics for 'away from it all' weekends or days. (e.g. TCM, Tai Chi, Yoga, Chinese culture, NLP, Buddhism-- anything that interests a section of people
    • )
  • 'Tours':
    o History of Lantau places
    o Archaeology - the ancient history
    o Culture & religion
    o Butterflies & insects
    o Birds
    o Flowers and trees
Also see our Vision for Silvermine Bay Waterfront