New Year Countdown Celebrations

New Year in High Resolution

When we turn on our telly for the New Year’s Eve countdown, we are usually unaware of why we see spectacular fireworks displays in some cities and not others. In fact, behind the fireworks is a PR war, in which city authorities and tourism bureaux fight for the attention of TV news producers, who choose the cities to highlight based on how stunning and representative their countdown shows are.

For Hong Kong, then, it was a major PR victory in 2013, as the HKTB-curated “New Year • New World – Hong Kong Countdown Celebrations” event was covered by over 650 TV channels, including the BBC, CNN and CCTV, placing Hong Kong among the ranks of the signature Sydney Harbour countdown and New York’s Times Square ball drop. And no wonder! Hong Kong’s iconic skyline became more dazzling than ever in the biggest countdown show Hong Kong had ever witnessed – a spectacle combining a huge amount of pyrotechnics, fireworks, music, and of course, screams of appreciation from massive crowds on both sides of Victoria Harbour.