New World First Ferry Services plans to allow Cheung Chau (an outlying island in Hong Kong) residents to board ferries first on public holidays. The next public holidays in Hong Kong are the Bhudda's Birthday on May 25 and Dragon Boat Festival on June 20.

New World First Ferry, jointly owned by Chow Tai Fook Enterprises and NWS Holdings, is setting a dangerous precedent. The top brass at the ferry company and officials at the government's Transport Department would be well-advised to call a halt to this discriminatory practice. It simply sounds crazy to allow some people in Hong Kong to have more rights than others. (Just imagine if one day rich people said they had the right to board taxis first!)

Cheung Chau, about an hour away from Hong Kong Island by boat, is a popular tourist spot, for local and overseas travelers. The island features pirate caves dating hundreds of years, green hills and sandy beaches. No cars are allowed on the island.

The discriminatory plan can be seen from a broader perspective. Hong Kong climbed two places to 13th in a survey of the competitiveness of its tourism industry in countries around the globe. The survey results, released on May 5, were conducted once every two years by the World Economic Forum.

The rankings measure the competitiveness of 141 countries and economies based on 14 criteria. This includes the business environment, travel and tourism policies, communication networks, infrastructure quality and natural resources. In travel and tourism policies, Hong Kong is well-known for its fair treatment of tourists. New World First Ferry's plan may change tourists' perceptions of Hong Kong.

By the same token, if New World First Ferry's plan remains unchallenged, bus companies in Aberdeen can use the same argument to allow Aberdeen residents to board buses before passengers from other districts are allowed to board. This would turn people's lives into chaos. Just imagine the messy situation when North Point residents have the right to board the MTR trains at the North Point station first. These are hypothetical examples, but they should emphasize the point I am trying to make.

On public holidays, New World prepares to reserve 80 to 100 seats per ferry for Cheung Chau residents. A spokeswoman was quoted as saying "the trial will last three to six months to see if residents are happy with the arrangement". This is surely a misguided idea.

I am sure local Cheung Chau residents would be happy with the policy but tourists and people from other parts of Hong Kong will not. Hong Kong residents who are not from Cheung Chau will definitely find the move annoying, if not discriminatory. Tourists, if they are turned away from the ferries, they may relay their unhappy experiences to their friends and family at home. It could become a public relations disaster for Hong Kong, long known as "a tourists' paradise".

No matter how we look at it, the policy to please local Cheung Chau residents doesn't seem to make sense. If there are too many visitors coming to the island on public holidays, First Ferry and other ferry companies, can run more services. If the ferry pier is saturated, a new pier should be built. For the island's long-term development, constructing new facilities seems to be an intelligent move.

Let's hope common sense prevails; they don't launch the policy of allowing local residents the right to board ferry first. Establishing such a precedent is extremely dangerous.

(HK Edition 05/15/2015 page11)