Insight: Planning with human dimension

Paulo Barbosa

Last month in Hong Kong, there was a rally in Mong Kok protesting against the flow of mainland visitors. According to the protesters, the influx of mainlanders is so high that the neighborhood residents are being “seriously affected” [The Standard, August 11].
Protesters specifically mentioned problems like the overstretched tourism capacities and transport networks, and the fact that small shops that used to serve HK’s North District residents (like food stalls) are closing, replaced by pharmacies and gold shops that cash in on the flow of visitors. They want the authorities to cancel multi-entry permits in order to curb visitor numbers.
The impact that massive tourism can have was again evident to me on a recent visit to Guilin city and Yangshuo, two top tourist destinations in China, known for the Li River and the limestone karst mountains, including those printed on the 20 Yuan banknotes.
There is a popular Chinese saying that Guilin’s scenery is the best among all under heaven, so the tourists, particularly the domestic ones, go there in flocks. China National Tourism Administration statistics indicate that over 15 million Chinese tourists and 1 million foreigners visited there in 2008. The figure must be higher now.
Many of those tourists visit the scenic towns in organized tours. If you are talking about a small place like Yangshuo, the impact of such a flow of visitors can almost ruin the idyllic scenery. The roads are packed with buses and the main street (Western Street) is like Senado Square on a public holiday. The famous Yangshuo bike tours are now partly conducted cycling in heavy-traffic roads. The enthralling beauty of the place can be better explored if one evades the group tours and is lucky enough, like I did, to spend one afternoon riding among rice fields and water buffalo herdsmen, without seeing more than a couple of tourists along the way.
The Yangshuo reference serves to illustrate the consequences that a huge influx of tourists can have on a small place.
When Hong Kong residents voice their anger and call for the cancelation of multi-entry visas, they are repeating the arguments that are whispered everyday here in Macau.
The Macau Tourist Office and other departments should conclude that the assessment of the tourism development in a place like Macau can’t be only about the quantity of visitors. Residents here are getting angry because they lose hours stuck in the middle of traffic, packed like sardines inside public buses and unable to get to their destination; or because their favorite restaurant closed to be replaced by a pawnshop; or because the influx of people drives prices up.
In Hong Kong, the government proposed a review of the economic and social impact of mainland tourism. One of the proposals under study is to limit the multi-entry permits for Shenzhen residents to 52 visits per year. This is not a small thing, since 96 pct of those permit holders visit HK once a day and many are parents of children born in HK, according to the region’s Security Bureau. The proposal is probably not good or feasible, since it would disrupt the lives of people that are living de facto in HK.
Besides the influx of tourists, many new immigrants have been arriving, and one must not confuse visitors with residents, like they seem to be doing in HK. In Macau,similarly to HK, we are dealing with a demographic change. To have an idea of the ongoing change, it is calculated that half a million people have come to reside in the HKSAR during the past ten years via one-way permits.
This flooding of people (tourists and new residents) may create hostility and even ill treatment and discrimination. We can see examples of that here in Macau. Just look at the way some people look down on mainland tourists or point out their bad manners (as if the locals were an example of civility and refined education). Lawmakers’ takes on non-resident workers are also appalling.
But the issue remains, especially in a city-state like Macau, where space and ideas are lacking: The city should be carefully planned in order to keep its human dimension. Otherwise, we will all be living soon in a soulless theme park/floating casino. And that’s where these planners are taking us.

Paulo Barbosa