Dr Sinn, Mr Cheng, Members of the Officiating Party, Distinguished delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, First of all, I would like to extend a very warm Hong Kong welcome to all the delegates to this International Conference on Heritage and Tourism, in particular first time visitors from overseas. With less than 500 hours to the Year 2000 and as the countdown to the Millennium ticks over impatiently, we are entering an era where distances between nations will continue to shrink and borders will become even more invisible. And with international travel becoming more affordable, the peoples of the global village will be able to visit each other more often. Tourism is a fast growing industry worldwide, so competition among destinations will be very keen. We have to work hard on new incentives, new attractions and new ideas.
Tourism is about leisure as well as discovery.
Seeing and learning about the practices, customs and cultures of other people is always an important element in any enjoyable holiday. Heritage is an important tourist attraction in itself. When you look out through the glass walls of this magnificent convention centre, you can see a city that is bristling with other glass-clad skyscrapers. Some may feel that this is a city of destruction and construction. And although we may not have been as careful and as far-sighted as we perhaps should have been in earlier years, we are now far more conscious of our responsibilities in preserving our heritage.