ACCESSIBLE TOURISM FOR DISABLEDPEOPLE IN HONG KONG:
AN ACTION STUDY
Kin-fai Cheung, Chairperson
Koon-hung Lee, Vice-Chairperson
Simon Wu, General Secretary
Carmen Chan, Project Officer
Rehabilitation AllianceHong Kong
Hong Kong, China
SUMMARY
The tourism industry is one of the most important pillars in Hong Kong’s economy. However, the needs of disabled tourists are always neglected in the tourism industry. Yet, we believe that an accessible environment is vital for disabled tourists, as it enables them to fully enjoy their journeys in Hong Kong.
Thus, an action research has been conducted to examine the accessibility of major tourist spots in Hong Kong. Methodology of the research will be first discussed. Then, research findings will be analyzed under the category of transport and tourist spots. Finally, recommendations will be given so as to improve the accessible tourism for disabled tourists in Hong Kong.
From the action study conducted, it was disappointing to find that none of the 9 routes checked were barrier-free. Problems such as lack of information, spots developed with no considerations of disabled people’s needs and insufficient supporting facilities are common. To improve the accessible tourism, different parties including the Tourism Development Board, the Tourism Commission, Transport Department and other relevant bodies must work together to have a review of the existing tourist spots, and to have a better planning in the future development projects.
Introduction
The tourism industry is one of the most important pillars of the economy in Hong Kong. In 2002, with 16.57 million visitors arriving in Hong Kong, the average length of stay of all visitors was 3.6 nights.
However, the needs of disabled tourists are always neglected in the tourism industry. With reference to the Hong Kong Visitor’s Kit 2002, published by the Hong Kong Tourism Development Board, a quick scan finds that at least half of 35 major visiting points does not provide fully accessible facilities for tourists with disabilities. Lack of disabled toilets in shopping malls, lack of access to some religious buildings and lack of transport for disabled tourists with disabilities are just some of the problems. Yet, an accessible environment, together with the supporting services, is vital for disabled tourists, as it enables them to fully enjoy their journeys in Hong Kong.
Based on this background, an action research has been conducted to examine the accessibility of major tourist spots in Hong Kong. In this paper, methodology of the research will be first discussed. Then, research findings will be analyzed under the category of transport and tourist spots. Finally, recommendations will be given based on the above findings so as to improve the accessible tourism for disabled tourists in Hong Kong.
Methodology
In order to assess the accessibility of tourist spots in Hong Kong, 9 site visits were conducted from September to December 2003. Since users’ participation is important, in each site visit, at least a disabled person was accompanied with at least a voluntary worker to visit the tourist spots. Thirteen tourist spots were selected from the 35 major major visiting points recommended by the Hong Kong Visitor’s Kit 2002. In order to have a more comprehensive examination, different gateways and means of transportations were checked in different site visits. For a detailed description of the 9 planned routes, please refer to the table below.
Table 1 Nine Planned Routes for Inspection
Gateway / Means of transportation to hotel / Region of hotel / Means of transportation to tourist spots / Tourist spots1 / Airport / Airport Express/ CityBus / Mongkok / Mass Transit Railway(MTR) /
Ferry / LammaIsland
2 / Airport / Airport Express/ CityBus / Mongkok / MTR /
Ferry/
Lantau Bus / Big Buddha on LammaIsland
3 / Hung Hom / KowloonCanton Railway(KCR) / Mongkok / MTR / WongTaiSinTemple/
Sai Kung
4 / Lo Wu / KCR / Mongkok / Bus / Hong Kong Cultural Centre/
Waterfront promenade
5 / ChinaHong KongCity / Kowloon Motor Bus (KMB) / Mongkok / KCR / Hong KongHeritageMuseum/
Shatin
6 / ChinaHong KongCity / MTR / Mongkok / MTR/
CityBus / RepulseBay
7 / Shun Tak Centre / MTR / Mongkok / MTR/
Peak tram / The Peak/
ManMoTemple
8 / Shun Tak Centre / MTR / Mongkok / MTR/
CityBus / OceanPark
9 / Huanggang / HuangBus / Mongkok / KCR / Fung Ying Seen Koon
Research Findings
We try to summarize our experience in the site visits as below. Findings will be divided into two main categories, namely transport and tourist spots.
Transport
Buildings
The gateway is the place each tourist first and must reach when they visit Hong Kong. Therefore, an immigration tower which is accessible for all is very important. As seen from the above table, almost all gateways of Hong Kong are covered in our site visits. In general, most of the buildings are accessible to wheelchair users, with sufficient space and the construction of standard ramps and dropped kerbs. The only exception is Huanggang, one of the gateways linking Hong Kong and mainland. There is no clear signage showing the way to transit. No dropped kerbs can be found in the taxi-stop, the bus-stop or the coach-stop, which makes the wheelchair users have great difficulties when getting on or off the vehicles.
It is also disappointing to see that inside the immigration towers, there is generally a serious lack of facilities for disabled people with visual impairment, such as guide path, warning strips, audible lifts or Braille maps.
Vehicles
As seen from the above table, various means of public transportation were used. Taxi, though a form of point-to-point transportation, was avoided when we planned our routes since taxi fares are expensive and not every tourist can afford them. However, when we were actually conducting our site visits, we were forced to take taxis for a many times since we had no choices to get another public transport to some tourist spots.
There are several bus operators in Hong Kong and thus the accessibility of different buses varies. Buses running through the urban areas are generally accessible, provided that the bus route has low-floor buses with ramps. However, the Lantau Bus, the only one bus operator running on LantauIsland does not offer low-floor bus and therefore, wheelchair users are unable to get on them. Also, the HuangBus, running across the border of Hong Kong-Mainland, though provides a few low-floor bus services, there are no ramps installed. Thus, wheelchair users have great difficulties to get on the bus.
Concerning the railway system, the MTR and KCR were checked in site visits. Disabled tourists with visual impairment generally have not much difficulties when getting on and off the MTR and KCR since guide path (but not full platforms for KCR) and warning strips can be found in every station. On the other hand, wheelchair users face more difficulties when accessing these two transport systems. Since most MTR stations are built underground, after the wheelchair users have left the train, they can only reach the ground level by lifts. However, these facilities could not be found in all inspected stations. An older station like Central is one of the examples. This is very inconvenient to disabled tourists since Central is a major MTR station with a lot of tourist spots nearby. In contrast, this problem is less serious in KCR stations since most of them are built on ground level. However, the wide platform gap in many of the KCR stations always causes danger to wheelchair users when they get on and off the train.
Other types of public transportation such as ferry or the Peak tram are not fully accessible to disabled tourists. Wheelchair users can only get on them with the assistance from the staff. This is not acceptable while the notion of independent living of disabled people is advocated nowadays all over the world.
Tourist spots
Access to visiting points
Disabled people have encountered greatest difficulties when going to the visiting points after getting off from the public transport. This is mainly due to two reasons. The first is the problematic design of streets and roads. Many streets are narrow, with steep slope and lots of stairs. This is particularly true in those old districts with poor town planning. The second is lack of clear signage for disabled tourists. In these few years, sign posts have been installed to show the directions and routes of the tourist spots to tourists. However, these sign posts have no considerations on the needs of disabled tourists. Very often, if disabled tourists followed the routes demonstrated by the sign posts, they cannot reach the designated tourist points due to various obstacles encountered, such as stairs and lack of dropped kerbs when crossing roads.
For example, when visiting the Man Mo Temple on Hong Kong island, after getting off the bus, disabled tourists cannot rely on the route as suggested by the sign posts, but need to spend more than an hour to find the route to the Temple by themselves. Even being able to reach the Temple, they cannot enter it due to the stairs. Another example is the RepulseBay. After getting off the bus, there is only one flight of stairs linking the pedestrian road and the beach, so wheelchair users have great difficulties finding the route to the beach. Again, even being able to reach the beach, wheelchair users can only travel along the beach, but not to the statues, one of the landmarks of the beach, due to the stairs in front of the statues.
Disabled toilets
Generally speaking, disabled toilets can be found in major tourist spots. However, disabled tourists still encountered some difficulties when using the toilets. For example, there is only one disabled toilet in Yung Shue Wan on LammaIsland but it is under renovation. Another example is the OceanPark, a large theme park on Hong KongIsland. Since disabled toilets only sparsely scatter around the park, disabled people may have difficulties to find a disabled toilet when they have urgent needs.
Dining facilities
Ironically, quite a number of beautifully renovated restaurants are not accessible for wheelchair users, either because of the stairs at the entrance or lack of space inside the restaurants. In the site visits, we left the hotel in Mongkok and traveled along the Nathan Road to find a restaurant that wheelchair users could get in. However, we found that many restaurants were inaccessible and at the end, we could only eat in a foodstall in the street. On the other hand, dining facilities located in open–air environment, such as those seafood stalls on LammaIsland are more accessible due to the more free space and lack of obstacles .
Shopping malls
The situation of shopping malls is similar to that of dining facilities. Many shopping malls , such as those in Mongkok and Sai Kung, are inaccessible to disabled tourists due to the lack of sufficient space and ramps. However, the situation is better in those relatively newly-built shopping centers, such as the PeakTower, as disabled people’s facilities such as ramp and lift can be found. However, it is disappointing to find that facilities for disabled people with visual impairment such as warning strips, guide paths or Braille maps cannot be found in any of the shopping malls during our site visits.
Recommendations
As disabled tourists have the equal rights to access to different tourist spots in Hong Kong, the Tourism Development Board, the Tourism Commission and other relevant government departments should take the lead to promote accessible tourism.
Publication of information to disabled tourists
Since it was discovered that there was a serious lack of information for disabled tourist, the Tourism Development Board and Tourism Commission should work together to explore the existing possible routes and accessible tourist spots. Information should then be publicized and tourists who need those information should have easy access to them. For example, leaflets and booklets containing information which disabled tourists will need should be published. Clear signage showing the directions to spots and other supporting facilities should be set up so that disabled tourists need not take time to find the way.
Review of the accessibility of current tourist spots
In response to the difficulties faced by the disabled tourist as discussed above, the accessibility current tourist spots should be reviewed, especially those heritage spots such as Wong Tai Sin Temple, Man Mo Temple and Fung Ying Seen Koon. Since these buildings were usually built years ago with no considerations of disabled people’s needs, improvement work should be carried out, such as widening of roads or installation of facilities for the disabled, so that disabled tourists will not be barred from entering the temples due to the long stairs or lack of facilities for disabled people with visual impairment.
Better planning in future tourist spots
The above two recommendations are just short term measures. In long terms, there should be better planning in future tourist spots. Various new projects are currently being developed or studied by the government or private developers, such as the Hong Kong Disneyland and international wetland park. The government must take the lead to pay special attention on disabled people’s facilities. This also inevitably requires co-operation among different bodies such as the Tourism Development Board, Tourism Commission, Transport Department and Planning Department. If the government has contracted out the projects to development companies, the government should have sufficient supervision on them so as to ensure adequate and accessible disabled people’s facilities are built.
Conclusion
To promote accessible tourism for disabled tourists, a barrier-free environment in the gateways, transportation network, tourist spots and other supporting services are essential. From the action study conducted, it was disappointing to find that none of the 9 routes checked were barrier-free. The Tourism Development Board, the Tourism Commission, Transport Department and other relevant bodies must work together to have a review of the accessibility of existing tourist spots, and to have a better planning in the future development projects. The promotion of accessible tourism is not only for the good sake of disabled tourists, but also the development of tourism industry in Hong Kong as a whole.
REFERENCES
Buildings Department (1997). Design Manual: Barrier Free Access 1997. Hong Kong: Printing Department.
Tourism Commission (2003). Fact Sheet: Tourism in Hong Kong.Hong Kong: Information Services Department.
Tourism Development Board (2002). Hong Kong Visitor’s Kit.Hong Kong: Tourism Development Board