Mainland China is our top source market and we go to great lengths to maintain a close bond with all our trade partners and to leave visitors with a lasting, positive impression of Hong Kong, regardless of their purpose of travel.
We collaborated with World Traveller Media (WTM) to roll out a series of emotional videos nationwide to promote Hong Kong’s hospitable image and attract Mainland visitors to Hong Kong. The positive feedback it received encouraged us to further our consumer education in the Quality Tourism Services Scheme and Quality and Honest Hong Kong Tours, this time through advertorials in nine newspapers and online travel agents such as LY.com. We also kept up with the fast-growing digital trend by inviting local celebrities and key opinion leaders (KOLs), including Jiang Xin and Guo Tao, to help build destination awareness on their social media platforms throughout the year.
Among the trade partners we worked with to attract visitors by offering special packages were Alitrip, an online travel website popular with Mainlanders, Cathay Pacific/Dragonair, and China Eastern Airlines. Also crucial in delivering news of the latest happenings and promotional offers to entice spending was the strategic HK Value Offer Programme we built with digital platforms Sina, Alipay and Dianping.
Corporate and consumer outreach is a great way to uphold the city’s reputation as Asia’s MICE and cruise hub. In 2015/16, to showcase our MICE offerings and seek partnerships, we organised dinner events in Beijing and Shanghai for 50 corporate decision makers, as well as a familiarisation trip for 18 convention organisers from the China National Association. To promote our cruise offerings, we invited pop singer Hins Cheung to participate in a series of photos of him enjoying various activities on a cruise. This was followed by several bursts of publicity and a familiarisation trip for KOLs and the media to maximise coverage of the event.