India

Hold My Hand in Hong Kong

Film adaptations have been around for almost as long as films have existed, but using a novel and a film for tourism promotion is relatively new.

In India, the HKTB became the first tourism bureau in the world to promote a destination using the two media together. Two trends gave rise to the idea: first, rising literacy and book sales in the Indian market, and second, the continued strong influence of Bollywood.

In the first part of the campaign, the novel Hold My Hand was a joint project with bestselling young author Durjoy Datta. He came up with the love story after a trip to Hong Kong, and the book soon swept to the top of various booklists, including the top 10 list of HT Nielsen.

The HKTB extended the campaign to the film industry, partnering with Whistling Woods International, one of the world’s best film schools, on a short-film making competition riding on Durjoy Datta’s book. The winning and shortlisted films, available on YouTube, together with the “Hold My Hand Romantic Package” the HKTB developed with tour operator Thomas Cook, proved a successful driver of visitor traffic from India to Hong Kong in the winter, with Indian arrivals to Hong Kong up 4.9% year on year in 2013.