**********************
Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Gregory So, to the media on tourism after attending a radio programme today (October 3):
Reporter: What's your interpretation of the latest tourism figures and what is your forecast of the remaining year? You also mentioned that there are neighbouring countries competing for the tourists...
Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development: I like to look at trends. For the month of June, July and August, there was a downward trend and decrease in the number of tourists coming to Hong Kong. I just in answering a question yesterday released the figure of October 1 which is the first day of the golden week. It appears that we have an increase of 15.4 per cent in the total number of tourists coming on that day. I cautioned that we cannot base the conclusion on just one day of tourist arrival figure and need to look at a longer period in order to have a clearer picture. I think I would like to wait until the seven-day period is over before I can draw any conclusion. It is a fact that different countries and tourist destinations in the region is gearing up their effort to attract more Mainland tourists to go to their respective destinations. And it is also aided by the fact that the currency devaluation of these destinations has been a great factor in terms of inviting the tourists to their economies. But I strongly believe in the competitive edge of Hong Kong and the attractiveness of various attractions in Hong Kong. For that, we'll continue to intensify our effort, for example our traditional attractions like Disneyland and Ocean Park will roll out expansion. In other places of Hong Kong, we'd like to develop more cultural tourism and green tourism. For that, we'll work with the industry to come up with different plans to attract more tourists to come to Hong Kong. Thank you for your questions.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Saturday, October 3, 2015
Issued at HKT 13:09
NNNN