Hong Kong to enforce stricter measures at nature spots for Lunar New Year holiday

Hong Kong authorities are tightening crowd control and environmental protection measures at popular hiking and camping spots ahead of the nine-day Lunar New Year holiday, with officials estimating that 1.43 million mainland Chinese tourists will visit the city.Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Rosanna Law Shuk-pui said on Saturday the government was taking a more proactive approach to managing visitor flows at nature sites this year, following repeated incidents of overcrowding and environmental damage during past peak travel periods.“Ecotourism is about getting close to nature, but it should be in a comfortable and orderly environment,” Law said on a radio show.“If certain sites become too crowded, we may need to introduce crowd control measures so people queue properly, because some of these places are very small.”Law said government departments were closely monitoring ecotourism hotspots such as Sai Kung, where beaches, campsites and hiking trails had previously been overwhelmed by visitors unfamiliar with local regulations and conservation rules.Her comments came as the government estimated that about 1.43 million visitors from the mainland would enter Hong Kong during the Lunar New Year “golden week” from February 15 to 23 — an increase of about 6 per cent in average daily arrivals compared with last year.