Global Financial Market Review

The CEO of the West Kowloon Cultural District on Saturday said the district is gearing up for an expected uptake in visitors ahead of the peak travel season in early May.

Betty Fung said currently only about 35 percent of the visitors to the Palace Museum and the M+ Museum are tourists, but this should increase to 50 percent by the end of the year.

Fung said the district was getting prepared to receive a large number of tour groups following the resumption of quarantine-free travel with the mainland.

"We are getting the transportation, reception and ticket sales ready. For example, we have plans to help visitors with their luggage and to pick them up from the high-speed rail terminus. We have also made available 27 bus pick-up and drop-off points for tour groups," she told reporters after attending an event.

Speaking at the same event, M+ Museum board chairman Bernard Chan said he expected more overseas industry representatives to visit the museum in the future, which has attracted more than 2.8 million visitors since it opened in 2021.

Chan, who's newly appointed as a member of the Chief Executive's Council of Advisers, said he hoped the district would become the SAR's cultural landmark.