Newsletter No. 479

本刊由香港中文大學資訊處出版，每月出版兩期。截稿日期及稿例載於 www.iso.cuhk.edu.hk/chinese/newsletter/ 。   The CUHK Newsletter is published by the Information Services Office, CUHK, on a fortnightly basis. Submission guidelines and deadlines can be found at   www.iso.cuhk.edu.hk/english/newsletter/ . was 13.44 tonnes in 2007–2010, almost twice the amount provided by the Environmental Bureau (around 5 to 7.4 tonnes CO 2 -e per capita from 1990–2012), as the latter did not include air travel and other related data. Travelling by air can take up to more than half (55.4%) of the annual carbon emissions by each Hong Kong resident. You posted many photos of interesting places in Hong Kong on your website and Facebook. Why do you think these places are rarely visited? People don’t want to spend a few hours on the road just to visit one single attraction. That’s why we are planning various itineraries which allow travellers to make multiple stops along the way. They can appreciate the sceneries or stop by unique local restaurants before reaching the final destination, or even spend a night at a nearby hostel before returning home. What if I really want to experience a different culture and try things that are only available overseas? N: We understand that travelling abroad offers you many extraordinary experiences. For example, if you want to see a volcano or experience snowing in the winter, you can’t do that in Hong Kong. However, people are flying so frequently nowadays for leisure. Many people travel to the same place over and over again just for food or shopping. Some of them are not even particularly impressed by their journeys. They travel just to kill time. We hope to introduce an alternative and more eco-friendly option to this group of travellers. A: In fact, we can all do our parts to support the sustainable development of rural Hong Kong if we spend our time and money wisely. Eco-friendly local travel is ‘sustainable’ as it is not only friendly to the environment, but it also helps the economic sustainability of local communities. How do you envision the future of yourselves and V’air? We are still at the initial stage of developing our concepts. Currently, we want to add more contents and introduce more local attractions to our website. Media coverage also attracted some CUHK students to join our team. They are now using their expertise in language and photography to help edit the travelling articles and images before we post them online. In the next few years, we would like to collaborate with local NGOs to organize a three-day eco- tour. In order to do that, we need to obtain a business registration and further enlarge the scale of our operation. We hope that in the future, V’air will become a popular and resourceful online platform to facilitate eco-travel in Hong Kong. Can you tell us your experience at the HK Tertiary Schools COP21 Challenge? After becoming the finalists, we entered a two-day intensive overnight workshop and were assigned to team up with another student from HKUST. The challenge was to develop a proposal with feasible solutions to a specific climate change issue in Hong Kong. We then came up with the idea of ‘V’air’—an Airbnb-style online platform that encourages local travel by allowing individuals and groups to list tours available in Hong Kong ( www.vairhk. com ). We were very honoured to have received the first prize from Secretary for the Environment, Mr. K.S. Wong and Consul General of France in Hong Kong and Macau, Mr. Eric Berti . Why do you want to promote local travel? In what ways can ‘travelling local’ help the environment? If you think you are leading a relatively eco-friendly lifestyle, try adding your travel history into a carbon emission calculator—the result may surprise you! The CO 2 emission of a return flight from Hong Kong to Japan is about 0.5 tonne, which equals the amount of emission for leaving a light bulb on for a continuous period of six months. Spending holidays in Hong Kong not only allows you to save time and money, but also reduce your carbon footprint. A survey launched by WWF revealed the average amount of CO 2 emission of a Hong Kong resident per year 楊：可持續發展所需要的不只是對環境的保護，還包括對社 區經濟的支持。每個人都可以為香港社區和鄉郊的可持續發 展出一分力，留港參加生態旅遊可支援本地經濟，令村民留 在區內工作，發展屬於他們的獨特社區。 期望 V’air 未來有何發展? 我們半年前開始構思這個網上平台，至今仍在起步階段。現 時最想做的，是增加網頁內容，發掘更多香港有趣的景點， 介紹給大家。早前有幾位同學看完媒體的報道後，決定加入 我們的團隊，他們運用各自在語文和攝影上的天賦，修飾遊 記的文字及照片，令網頁更加吸引。此外，也有很多非政府 組織主動聯絡我們，提供不少生態旅遊的路線。未來三年， 我們計劃和非政府組織合作，安排三日兩夜的香港生態遊。 為此，我們必須註冊為公司，這樣整個團隊的運作模式將會 更加複雜。雖然預計未來需要花更多時間和精神，但團隊仍 不斷努力。我們的長遠目標是讓V ’ air成為一個既提供豐富 的本地旅遊資訊，又能實際推動香港生態旅遊發展的網上  平台。 請分享你們參加聯合國氣候變化大會香港大專教育界競賽 的經驗。 成功進入決賽後，大會安排了兩日一夜的工作坊。我們與另 一位香港科技大學的學生組成一隊，經過討論後，構想了一 個名為V ’ air的網上平台（ www.vairhk.com ） ，以供個人與團 體上載現有的本地旅行團資訊，鼓勵假日留港旅遊及消費， 以減少境外旅遊對環境的影響。團隊的構思最終贏得一等 獎，並有幸從環境局局長 黃錦星 先生及法國駐港澳總領事 Eric Berti 先生手中接過得獎證書。 為何要推動本地旅遊?對環境有何幫助? 許多人覺得自己的生活習慣已經相當環保，例如出門前一定 會關燈之類。但若將過去一年的境外旅遊次數加起來，結 果可能超乎想像！由香港去一趟日本，客機在來回的飛行旅 程會排放約半噸的二氧化碳，相等於一盞燈連續六個月不 關的總碳排放量。根據世界自然基金會的調查報告，2007 至2010年間，香港每年人均碳排放量為13.44噸，相比起環 境局的資料（1990至2012年間，每人年均碳排放量介乎5 至7.4噸）超出差不多兩倍，因後者沒有加入外遊等相關數 據。世界自然基金會又指出，受訪的香港人每年平均超過一  半（55.4%）的碳排放量是來自航空旅遊。所以假日選擇留 港旅遊，除了能為你省下不少金錢和時間，更可大大減低個 人的碳足印。 你們的網頁上有許多香港的特色景點照片，為何甚少人發掘 到這些地方？ 香港許多有特色的景點都不為人所知，即使有這些資料，大 部分香港人也不願只為到訪一個景點而長途跋涉。針對旅遊 資訊缺乏統一性的問題，我們的網站特別設計了一系列的短 線行程，介紹從市區到達目的地風景區沿路可停靠的餐廳或 景點，旅客更可考慮在當地留宿一晚，第二天再回程。 但許多特別的地理現象和歷史人文風景，都必須離開香港才 可以體驗得到…… 鍾：海外旅行的確有助增廣見聞，一些特別的景色，例如活 火山和下雪等現象，只能前往外地才能親身體驗。我們無須 完全否定境外旅遊的價值，但現在越來越多人選擇所謂「快 閃」旅遊的方式，這些旅客重複坐飛機去相同的地方、做相 同的事，例如享受美食或購物等，他們在當地只逗留幾天， 回港後對旅程也沒有太深刻的印象，仿佛純粹是為了消磨 時間。創立V ’ air網站，就是希望向這批旅客推薦另一個選 擇—留在香港消費旅遊。 鍾: 鍾芯豫 N: Natalie 楊: 楊子雋 A: Arthur 鍾芯豫，楊子雋 Natalie Chung and Arthur Yeung 地理與資源管理學系學生、 聯合國氣候變化大會香港大專教育界 競賽一等獎得主 （得獎項目： V ’ air 本地旅遊資訊網頁） Students of Geography and Resource Management, Winners of First Prize in the HK Tertiary Schools COP21 Challenge (Winning concept: V’air—an online platform for local travel) Photo by ISO staff 鍾芯豫（右）、楊子雋（左） Natalie Chung (right), Arthur Yeung (left) ’ 口談實錄 Viva Voce 10 479 • 4.6.2016