LCQ4: Permanent exhibitions of the Hong Kong Science Museum
Question by the Hon Chan Chun-ying :
According to the pledge of the Hong Kong Science Museum (“HKScM”), HKScM will provide at least 500 exhibits in-house at all times, of which 70% will be interactive exhibits, and will keep at least 90% of the interactive exhibits in working order. As pointed out in the Director of Audit’s Report No. 75 (“the Report”) published in 2020, while permanent exhibitions at HKScM were generally designed by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department to last for 10 to 15 years, as of September 2020, 10 of the 15 permanent exhibitions at HKScM had been operating for more than 15 to 29 years. In its Minute issued in 2021 in response to the Report, the Government pledged to adopt enhancement measures, while advising that HKScM had formulated a renewal plan and timetable to update the contents of various permanent exhibitions and replace ageing interactive exhibits. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the implementation situation of HKScM’s pledge in the past three years;
(2) of the details of the renewal plan for various permanent exhibitions at HKScM (including the quantity of exhibits, costs involved and works schedule), together with the implementation situation of the plan;
(3) whether HKScM has put in place a regular refurbishment plan for permanent exhibitions to sustain their public appeal; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(4) of the attendance at HKScM in each of the past three years, together with the ratio of local, Mainland and overseas visitors?
Reply by the Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism, Mr Kevin Yeung :
(1) The Hong Kong Science Museum (HKScM) has been able to meet theperformance pledges as stated in the question for the past three years. Details are tabulated as follows:
(2) and (3) The Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) has been renewing the permanent exhibitions at the HKScM at irregular intervals. The duration of exhibition mainly depends on factors such as its popularity, etc. There is no performance pledge for the duration of the exhibition but typically they will last for 10 to 15 years. LCSD has formulated plans and timetables for renewing these permanent exhibitions. At present, four of the 15 permanent exhibitions at the HKScM have completed the renewal orderly. Details are as follows:
For the rest of the 11 permanent exhibitions, nine will be renewed in 2025.Details are as follows:
LCSD will plan to commence the renewal of the last two galleries (World of Mirrors and The Jockey Club Environmental Conservation Gallery) in 2026-27 subject to the availability of resources.
(4) From 2021-22 to 2023-24, the number of visitors to the HKScM were 1,074,769 , 1,101,143 and 1,351,783 respectively. The attendance was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused intermittent temporary closure of the HKScM during the first two years. While LCSD does not have a demographic breakdown of these attendance figures, according to its online survey conducted from October 2023 to September 2024, the percentages of local, Mainland and overseas visitors to the HKScM were around 72.5%, 14.8% and 12.7% respectively.