?We?ve never been more confident in either Hong Kong or the potential success of Hong Kong Disneyland," Robert Iger, president of the Walt Disney Co, said recently.

?Hong Kong is an even stronger tourism market than it was back in 1999, when we first announced this project," Iger said.

Iger?s bullish view of Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland?s economic development is a sample of the vote of confidence from the international business community about investing in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region?s (HKSAR) booming tourist industry.

Before Hong Kong?s return to the motherland in 1997, the city, without a world-class sightseeing spot, or plans to construct one, could only claim itself, at best, to be a ?shopping paradise" or ?food paradise."

Despite that, Hong Kong has always been a duty-free port, Joseph Tung, executive director of Hong Kong?s Travel Industry Council, said last week.

The region?s former British administration did not have a tourism policy, he said.

?I feel we have had a systematic tourism policy only since Hong Kong?s return to the motherland," Tung said.

?Before that, we didn?t have, as we do now, the Tourism Commission to set forth tourism policies. The then-Hong Kong Tourism Association mainly helped publicize and market Hong Kong. But that doesn?t mean the government worked towards making a policy."

Tung Chee-hwa, HKSAR?s chief executive, said in his recent policy address that Hong Kong is Asia?s World City.

Hong Kong, being one of the world?s safest cities, is determined to develop tourism as one of its pillar industries, the chief executive added.

Tourist arrivals in Hong Kong from around the world are soaring, and that trend is expected to continue after the long-expected Disney Theme Park opens in 2005-06.

?Only after our Disney Theme Park is completed will we truly be able to claim to possess a world-class sightseeing spot," Joseph Tung said.

Hong Kong Tourism Board statistics indicate visitor arrivals increased 19.9 per cent, to 14.9 million, in the first 11 months of 2002, and that arrivals are expected to exceed 16 million for the year.

Arrivals from the Chinese mainland experienced an even more spectacular increase of 52.1 per cent, totalling 6.07 million, in the first 11 months of 2002.

As a result, Disney officials have revised upward their visitor projections from 5 million to 5.6 million ?for the park?s first year of operations. Disney officials, bullish about the park, have suggested the company would build a second them park in the region if customers exceeded 10 million.

That could happen, if China, as predicted by the World Tourism Organization, becomes by 2020 the world?s largest tourism destination.

The organization predicts the HKSAR will be the world?s fifth-largest tourism destination.

HKSAR residents are permitted to travel to the Chinese mainland with their home permits, but mainland residents must be part of a tour group to visit Hong Kong.

The central government, responding to a HKSAR proposal, has agreed to consider relaxing those travel restrictions, Tung Chee-hwa said in his policy address.

Joseph Tung said he welcomed the proposal, suggesting the move could encourage thousands of new tourists to visit Hong Kong every year.

To accommodate more tourists from the Chinese mainland and abroad, more than 20 hotels will be completed by 2006, increasing to 12,000 the number of hotel rooms in the region.

(Xinhua News Agency January 28, 2003)