Annex 4

Creating Employment Opportunities by Developing Cultural and Creative Industries in the Southern District

Responses by Relevant Government Departments

I. Response from Tourism Commission:

The Tourism Board (HKTB) is tasked to market and promote Hong Kong as a preferred travel destination worldwide and to enhance visitors’ experience during their stay in Hong Kong. HKTB has all along utilised the assets and resources, including cultural & heritage, art & entertainment, great outdoors, in Hong Kong to promote relevant tourism products & activities.

HKTB welcomes suggestions by the District Councils to explore and develop products or events with tourism merit that can help boost the international image of Hong Kong and attract visitors to the city. HKTB will maintain communication with the District Councils so as to gauge the views of the local residents as appropriate.

II. Response from Leisure Services Branch of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD):

Regarding the proposal in the agenda item on organisation of activities at the beaches in the Southern District and promotion of water sports in order to create employment opportunities, LCSD’s replies are as follows:

There are 12 public beaches, two water sports centres and a public swimming pool in the Southern District under LCSD. Except Hairpin Beach and , life-saving services are provided at the other 10 public beaches. LCSD also organises training courses at water sports centres to actively promote water sports, let more people know the water sports and increase the participation, so as to enhance their development in Hong Kong.

LCSD fully understands the needs of venues for organising activities and welcomes the organisations to hold the healthy programmes and sports activities at LCSD venues for the general public to participate. In general, Beach and Beach are among the Southern Beaches that have larger sand areas and have more ancillary facilities. Therefore, large-scale beach activities are mostly organised at the above beaches. However, LCSD must balance the interest between swimmers and the visitors who come to swim and engage activities such as sun bathing, sand sculpture and playing beach balls on the beaches, as well as to consider the efficiency of life-saving services. As such, the LCSD generally does not permit other than beach activities during the peak swimming season (June to September), but would cater only festive ones such as dragon boat competition that could also promote water sports.

On the other hand, during the non-peak swimming season, in which period the life-saving services are not affected, a total of 20 activities with various types and scales were held in Southern beaches under LCSD from October 2019 to May of the following year. They included the “Hong Kong Beach Festival”, the “Beach 5s” Carnival, the “Beach Korfball Tournament”, “Kite Flying Carnival” and a number of Sand Sculpture Competitions and fun days; “Outward Bound Adventure Race” which was held across two beaches and “Southern Beach Race”, as well as rescue drill during the “Hong Kong Water Safety Day” and several traditional activities such as the Stanley Dragon Boat Championships, Small Dragon Boat Race, New Year Winter Swimming Lifesaving Championships and Tin Hau Festival Opera Performance at , etc. The total number of participants was more than 22 205.

For the promotion of water sports including windsurfing and kayak, out of the five water sports centres of LCSD, two are located in the Southern District. They are the Water Sports Centre and St. Stephen’s Beach Water Sports Centre. These two water sports centers would provide equipment such as kayak, windsurfing boards and sailing boats for the hirers with qualified certificates for practice, they also regularly organise kayak, windsurfing and sailing tracing courses and fun days for eligible participants. In 2019, the two centres provided more than 1 000 water sports courses with 12 000 and 13 000 users respectively. The overall usages rate was more than 80%.

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III. Response from Performing Arts Division of LCSD:

The LCSD organises district free entertainment programmes regularly at various locations in the district e.g. parks, open spaces, estates and community centres, including the Amphitheatre of Stanley Plaza, Stanley Promenade and Shek O Beach. The performances cover different art forms, such as music, dance, Chinese opera, Chinese traditional puppet show, children programmes and more. The performance held at Shek O Beach is a contribution programme to Southern District Sand Sculpture Competition so as to enrich the atmosphere of the activity.

To further promote arts development and enhance artistic ambience in the community, the LCSD will collaborate with Southern District Council and district organisation to launch Community Arts Scheme in the district in 2020-21 to replace the free entertainment programmes. Tailor-made enhanced arts activities will be organised to promote cultural exchange in the community and develop the district’s own Community Arts Scheme. In addition to the enhanced training activities, 12 Community Cultural Arts Programmes covering various art forms will also be staged under the Scheme at suitable venues in the district. The LCSD submits papers to the Recreation and District Facilities Committee under the Southern District Council on a regular basis to report information of the programmes, and welcomed members’ comments on the programmes so as to cater for the needs from the district.

In response to the suggestions from the members, the LCSD will consider to arrange Community Cultural Arts Programmes in venues of more crowd flow or to contribute programmes to district activities subject to selected programme date and availability of arts group and venue, so as to attract more citizens and tourists.

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