Preface
On New Year's Eve 2023, Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour will be the largest 12-minute New Year's fireworks display, with 479,000 Hong Kong citizens and tourists on both sides of the strait indulging in this shocking fireworks feast. At the penultimate moment, a well-crafted giant digital countdown echoes with roaring fireworks, culminating in the Chinese New Year's Eve revelry.
However, troubles also follow after the joy. There is a long queue for mainland tourists to return, and the capacity of the port cannot keep up with the number of returnees, and some tourists are forced to wait for the bus overnight and stay at the port. Some commentators bluntly said that "Hong Kong's New Year's Eve is too bad", questioning the ability of the Hong Kong authorities to deal with emergencies. Afterwards, the Hong Kong government promised to review the improvements, but the root of the problem seems to be not only in capacity rationing.
It is difficult to expand the capacity of the port
In fact, the Hong Kong government is not unprepared. The 24-hour subway and additional bus frequencies are all routine means to cope with the flow of people. However, there are inherent limitations to the expansion of port capacity, after all, port facilities and customs clearance manpower need to be fully budgeted and deployed in advance. In the event of an emergency, the system's capacity has not been able to keep up with the peak of reshoring due to the surge in the number of people.
In addition, after the end of the fireworks, a large number of tourists flocked to a few ports, and the distribution of passenger flow was uneven, and several major ports were still overcrowded. If it can guide the flow of people to more small ports, it may reduce the pressure on capacity slightly. Of course, this also requires a well-equipped connection to make a real difference.
Improve tourism reception services
Hong Kong's New Year's Eve fireworks display is gaining international popularity, attracting a growing number of tourists from the Mainland and Southeast Asia. It can be seen that there is still a lot of room for improvement in tourist reception services, not only from the capacity level, but also from the overall service level. Inform tourists of various ports and traffic conditions in advance and strengthen guidance; Patiently answer questions afterwards and provide temporary accommodation or catering services for tourists who have difficulties returning home.
Relevant departments in Hong Kong may consider setting up additional full-time reception staff for New Year's Eve at various ports, stations and tourist attractions. Utilize equipment such as translation machines to provide necessary assistance to non-Cantonese-speaking tourists, and respond to emergencies such as cancellations or capacity changes in a timely manner to minimize the inconvenience of tourists. On the whole, Hong Kong's hardware infrastructure has been quite complete, and the key lies in how to enhance the software services and match the hardware facilities to maximize their effectiveness.
Crowd control needs to be improved urgently
In view of the continuous increase in the number of tourists attracted by Hong Kong's New Year's Eve fireworks in recent years, the control of the 479,000 people will undoubtedly pose a huge challenge to Hong Kong's public facilities operation system. Although the Hong Kong Police Force and other departments have deployed control plans in advance, there are still obvious shortcomings in crowd control. Due to the lack of effective guidance, a large number of tourists subconsciously flock to a few large ports, which only exacerbates congestion.
Some experts pointed out that in response to "black swan" events such as large-scale sudden increase in the flow of people in a short period of time, Hong Kong needs to further improve the early warning mechanism, emergency response system, logistics support and other supporting measures, and truly establish a systematic response system. For example, big data is used to predict the peak of crowd flow in hot spots, and diversion guidance is carried out in advance; Dynamically adjust the input of transportation capacity, focusing on hot spots; Set up emergency transfer points to avoid tourists being stranded at the port for a long time. In the long run, it is also necessary to cultivate professional talents, systematically learn Xi experience in the management of international large-scale events, and continuously improve the management and control level of such large-scale events in Hong Kong.
epilogue
Overall, there is still room for improvement in Hong Kong's tourism reception services and crowd control, and it is necessary to learn from international successful cases and gradually establish and improve the governance system for large-scale events in the future.