Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau (CSTB) is one of the fifteen policy bureaux of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
[3] Recently, in accordance with the 14th Five-Year Plan, the bureau aimed to develop Hong Kong into an East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange.
Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Mr. Yeung, explained that the bureau implements the goal by attracting overseas and mainland Chinese artists, sportsmen and tourists to visit Hong Kong.
The following public entities are managed by the bureau:[18] Since 2022, several incidents took place concerning the mix-up of the Chinese national anthem with “Glory to Hong Kong”, a song linked to the 2019 anti-government protests.
CSTB, in alignment with the HKSAR Government, concurrently calls upon the HKIHA to provide a comprehensive written explanation regarding the incident concerning the erroneous playing of the National Anthem of the People's Republic of China.
[22] Secretary Kevin Yeung emphasised that the HKIHA needed to submit a report within a month detailing plans to improve its governance.
Yeung assured athletes that their funding and participation in international competitions would not be affected by the government’s decision to cut HKIHA's budget as a penalty for the anthem mix-up, expressing support for the development of sports in Hong Kong.
[27] Eventually, in May 2023, Kevin Yeung said CSTB "will ask the SF&OC to impose an appropriate penalty” to HKIHA to put an end to the national anthem mix-up incident.
[30] Under the new guidelines, all National Sports Associations (NSAs) must collect an anthem toolkit from SF&OC before departing for international events.
This toolkit includes two regional flags, hard copies of the anthem (either on disks or a USB drive), and an acknowledgement receipt for organizers to sign.
[31] In case of an anthem or flag-related error, the team leader is expected to object and call for a halt by displaying a "time-out" gesture.
Non-compliance with the guidelines may lead to sanctions for the concerned NSAs, including potential suspension of SF&OC membership and the withholding of government subvention or funding support.
[34] A Steering Committee chaired by the Permanent Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism will also be set up in the fourth quarter of 2023 to carry out work in different areas.
[38] On the other hand, retiree Lau Heung-ting questioned if the new museum is needed, considering the government “had already promoted the nation’s achievements in a ubiquitous manner.”[38] After a 3-year suspension of service since the pandemic in February 2020, the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal was re-opened in August 2023.
However, the massive influx of tourists together with the inherent traffic insufficiencies of the Cruise Terminal and the Kai Tak region has led to prolonged waiting hours for public transportation.
There were 2 bus routes: 22 & 22M and 1 minibus:86 available for connecting the Cruise Pier with the festival walk and Kowloon Bay Station[39] with a frequency of 30 minutes for each departure at the time.
[40] Legislative Council member Jimmy Ng Wing-Ka raised the concern that unreasonably long waiting hours for public transportation at cruise terminals would damage the international image of Hong Kong.
Non-officio convenor of the Executive Council, Regional Ip criticized the poor transportation arrangement has persisted over a decade since the launch of the terminal while relevant governmental departments failed to address the issue effectively during the pandemic.