Tourists at Half Moon Bay on 4 October 2026. Photo: Greenpeace Hong Kong
Greenpeace Hong Kong has urged the government to implement urgent visitor caps and a comprehensive ecotourism policy after recording thousands of tourists and dozens of instances of environmental damage at countryside hotspots during the National Day holiday. According to data collected by the environmental non-governmental organisation, specific eco-sites in the Sai Kung district experienced overwhelming foot traffic that far exceeded their sustainable limits.
On 4 October, Greenpeace campaigners recorded 3,010 visitors at Half Moon Bay, located on the southern end of Sharp Island. Concurrently, they logged more than 100 separate instances of individuals capturing or disturbing marine life in the shallow coastal waters.
The organisation urged the government to implement urgent visitor caps and a comprehensive ecotourism policy after recording thousands of tourists and dozens of instances of environmental damage at countryside hotspots during the National Day holiday.
According to the data collected, specific eco-sites in the Sai Kung district experienced overwhelming foot traffic that far exceeded their sustainable limits. On 4 October Greenpeace members recorded 3,010 visitors at Half Moon Bay, located on the southern end of Sharp Island. Concurrently, they logged more than 100 separate instances of individuals capturing or disturbing marine life in the shallow coastal waters.
At Long Ke Wan Beach, Sai Kung, campaigners estimated that approximately 1,516 people visited the site on1 October 1. During this period, the organisation recorded 89 instances of environmental damage, ranging from littering to the destruction of local flora.
The mechanisms designed to control these crowds have proven largely ineffective. A reservation system implemented at the Po Pin Chau viewing platform failed to curb overcrowding. On 1 October Greenpeace counted 64 individuals occupying the lookout simultaneously, a figure that clearly exceeds the platform’s official structural and environmental capacity.
Tourists at Long Ke Wan Beach, on 5 October 2026. Photo: Greenpeace Hong Kong
Greenpeace campaigner Ha Shun-kuen criticised this approach as fundamentally inadequate. “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 stated.
Ha stated that compared to international ecotourism destinations that utilise hard daily quotas, mandatory guided access, and dynamic pricing to protect vulnerable landscapes, Hong Kong’s countryside remains largely open-access. The lack of legally binding visitor caps means that during peak holiday seasons, the local ecosystem absorbs the entirety of the tourist shock without a regulatory buffer.
Greenpeace is demanding the immediate execution of carrying capacity assessments for all countryside hotspots across the territory. Based on these scientific assessments, the organisation argues that the government must establish maximum daily visitor caps for each specific site.
As of early October 2026, the relevant government bureaus have not publicly committed to implementing hard visitor caps or altering the existing open-access model for country parks.
Greenpeace notes that the consequences of over-tourism extend beyond abstract environmental metrics; they directly affect the local communities and the long-term viability of the tourism sector itself. Local residents in Sai Kung frequently face massive traffic gridlock, overwhelmed public transport, and the degradation of their immediate environment during public holidays. For the marine life surrounding Sharp Island, the unchecked capturing and handling by tourists disrupt breeding cycles and destroy coral formations that take decades to grow.
If the ecological integrity of these sites is irreversibly damaged, their value as tourist attractions will plummet, ultimately harming the economic interests of the tourism industry that relies on them. The current model extracts immediate value at the expense of long-term sustainability.
The pressure is now mounting on the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau to integrate environmental limits into its broader tourism strategy. The effectiveness of any future policy will depend on the government’s willingness to enforce unpopular restrictions, such as turning visitors away once a daily quota is reached. Until carrying capacity assessments are completed and legally binding limits are enacted, Hong Kong’s most vulnerable natural assets remain exposed to the cyclical devastation of holiday crowds.
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