Hong Kong Tourism Board marks Year of the Rooster

The Hong Kong Tourism Board celebrated the Lunar New Year in downtown Toronto last night, looking ahead to a year of growth and taking the opportunity to unveil its new global marketing campaign highlighting Hong Kong’s diversity and culture.

Invited guests assembled for a night of food and entertainment that was also attended by Kathy Chan, director, Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, Toronto.

“We had an excellent year, welcoming over 369,000 Canadians – an increase of three per cent,” Michael Lim, director, Canada, Central & South America, Hong Kong Tourism Board, told PAX. “We’re running a little faster already this year – especially with the launch of our new global campaign.”

Lim anticipated another strong year for the HKTB in 2017, signalling its continued emphasis on collaboration with partners and competitors to optimize growth. “When you travel to Asia, you’re probably going to two or three countries,” he reasoned. “So why don’t we work together and use our resources and creativeness and make sure visitors come our way?”

Describing Hong Kong’s unique position as a world-class city, Lim used his speech to showcase the HKTB’s new ‘Best of All, It’s in Hong Kong’ marketing campaign, using local personalities and celebrities to highlight the city’s rich culture, dramatic scenery and diverse areas of appeal.

The completion of two extensions to the MTR subway system, he said, now made it easier than ever to get around Hong Kong quickly, with the MTR South Island Line (East) creating a new tourism district by connecting Ocean Park, Wong Chuk Hang, Lei Tung and South Horizons.

The HKTB also announced that despite an overall decrease in total visitor arrivals in 2016, the year had seen an increase in the number of visitors from international markets. The ‘one visit per week’ policy helped contribute to a 6.7 per cent decrease in arrivals from the mainland, but strong performance from long-haul and short-haul markets resulted in an increase of 3.1 per cent in total international arrivals.

The HKTB's strong focus on short-haul markets and overnight visitors in recent years saw overnight arrivals reach approximately 26.553 million in 2016, with 8.4 per cent growth in short-haul markets.