Greenpeace warns of growing overtourism after recording thousands of National Day visitors at Hong Kong eco-sites

Hong Kong’s Greenpeace office has warned of growing overtourism after it recorded thousands of visitors and dozens of instances of environmental damage at local ecotourism hotspots in a single day during mainland China’s weeklong National Day break.

The environmental NGO on Tuesday urged the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau (CSTB) and the Environment and Ecology Bureau (EEB) to formulate a comprehensive ecotourism policy, including visitor caps, for countryside hotspots such as Half Moon Bay.

Greenpeace’s estimates come days after China’s National Day kickstarted the weeklong Golden Week holiday. On October 4, the NGO recorded 3,010 visitors at Half Moon Bay, on the southern end of Sharp Island, and more than 100 instances of capturing marine life were logged.

Long Ke Wan Beach, also in Sai Kung, recorded approximately 1,516 visitors on October 1, with 89 instances of environmental damage recorded, according to Greenpeace’s estimates.

Temporary ‘painkiller’

Greenpeace campaigner Ha Shun-kuen said that the government’s allocation of extra personnel fell short, as Half Moon Bay still suffered widespread damage, while reservation systems at Po Pin Chau failed to curb overcrowding.

“Stepping up enforcement only after overcrowding occurs at individual tourist spots serves merely as a temporary ‘painkiller’ that fails to address the root cause of the growing overtourism issue,” Ha said in Chinese.

The NGO also counted 64 people at the Po Pin Chau viewing platform at once on October 1, exceeding the lookout’s official capacity. Greenpeace previously also urged the government to reduce visitor quotas for the hiking trail.

Only a comprehensive ecotourism policy with measures such as scheduling seasonal trail closures for restoration works can effectively protect country parks, Ha said.

Greenpeace urged the government to immediately conduct carrying capacity assessments for all countryside hotspots across the city and set maximum visitor caps for each site.

In the long term, the CSTB and EEB must establish a “conservation-first ecotourism policy,” Greenpeace said, which should include routine monitoring of environmental impacts caused by visitors and formulating corresponding management measures.

Greenpeace also said that the proposed protection boundary of the Sharp Island Marine Park should cover the entire island’s waters, instead of just its eastern and western waters. Limiting the boundary would only displace tourists to Half Moon Bay on the southern side of the island, it said.

“Such steps will ensure that ecotourism is truly sustainable, preventing a recurrence of overtourism that damages Hong Kong’s reputation as an international travel destination,” the statement read.

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James Lee is a reporter at Hong Kong Free Press with an interest in culture and social issues. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in Journalism from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he witnessed the institution’s transformation over the course of the 2019 extradition bill protests and after the passing of the Beijing-imposed security law.

Since joining HKFP in 2023, he has covered local politics, the city’s housing crisis, as well as landmark court cases including the 47 democrats national security trial. He was previously a reporter at The Standard where he interviewed pro-establishment heavyweights and extensively covered the Covid-19 pandemic and Hong Kong’s political overhauls under the national security law.