Tourism officials are looking into a complaint about a video shown to thousands of passengers on board the cruise liner Queen Mary 2 which described Hong Kong as an 'extremely polluted city' with 'inferior museums'.
In the video, British archaeologist John Reich, a lecturer on the vessel, said there was no point in passengers visiting The Peak because the pollution would prevent them from seeing anything.
He also said the Hong Kong Museum of Art was not worth visiting because it was inferior to those in Shanghai, and that dining in Hong Kong was hopeless because no matter how carefully passengers studied the menu, they would always be served the wrong dish.
In a letter to the Sunday Morning Post, Hong Kong passenger Donald Lam said the video was of a lecture Professor Reich gave to introduce passengers to the city a day before the vessel, the world's largest cruise liner, docked at the Kwai Chung container port last week. It was televised repeatedly on the ship following the lecture.
Mr Lam said he complained in vain to the cruise director over Professor Reich's statements.
A Tourism Board spokeswoman said it was investigating.
'We have contacted the operator and asked why such a video was shown to passengers. We are waiting for their reply,' she said.
