Multimedia marketing and PR promotions

• Impressions generated by the Passion Passport social influencer campaign in the US: 27 million
• Impressions generated by the Zoomer media co-op in Canada: 2.6 million

TV remains the best tool to reach consumers in the US. During the year, we hosted US travel expert Rudy Maxa, who filmed two episodes of his PBS show “Rudy Maxa’s World” in Hong Kong, exploring the city’s gastronomy, architecture and nightlife with another US-based chef. The TV opportunity was supplemented by five online videos, a two-hour national radio show and social media promotions.

In addition, Hong Kong was prominently featured in the finale of the 30th season of the ever-popular show “The Amazing Race” on CBS.

As for social media, partnering with two US influencers and dominant Instagram travel platform Passion Passport, multiple posts and powerful visuals with an emphasis on Old Town Central and Great Outdoors Hong Kong had been generated. A custom Hong Kong page was also created on Passion Passport together with a feature video and an Instagram Challenge contest for the participants to win a trip to Hong Kong.

In Canada, where our major target segments were mid-career travellers and achievers, we joined hands with media group Zoomer Media to convey our brand message across its platforms, including two double-page spread features in the magazine Zoomer, and “Hong Kong Content Hub” on the lifestyle website everythingzoomer.com with travel stories, videos, banner advertisements, e-blasts and e-newsletters.

Actively participating in MICE and cruise industry events to generate business

• Buyer appointments and group presentations arranged at IMEX America: over 230
• Increase in sales of Hong Kong cruise products after the Cruise Planners fly-cruise marketing campaign in the US: 45%
• International awards won by the Cruise Planners fly-cruise marketing campaign:
  • Gold Award in the “Integrated Marketing Campaign” category, HSMAI (Hospitality, Sales & Marketing Association International) Adrian Awards 2017
  • Silver Award in the “Destination Marketing – Web Marketing/Advertising” category, Travel Weekly Magellan Awards 2017

The US is one of Hong Kong’s important sources of MICE and cruise arrivals. For the seventh consecutive year, we set up a Hong Kong Pavilion at the largest MICE trade event in the Americas, IMEX America, which was held in Las Vegas. Teaming up with 25 trade partners including hotels, venues, attractions and destination management companies, we promoted Hong Kong’s latest MICE products and the HKTB’s professional services to the event participants.

Meanwhile, to sustain Hong Kong’s image as “Asia’s Cruise Hub”, we once again exhibited in the world-leading annual cruise event Seatrade Cruise Global in the US. This year, we hosted a media lunch for the trade media and cruise line executives to announce the recent major infrastructure development in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong-Macao-Zhuhai Bridge and the Hong Kong Section of Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link. HKTB Executive Director Mr Anthony Lau also shared his insight as a panel speaker. To grow the high-potential fly-cruise business, we rolled out a fly-cruise marketing campaign in the US to amplify destination awareness for cruise-focused retail consortia. On top of a series of consumer marketing campaigns rolled out through print, digital and social media networks, we specially provided destination training and conducted trade engagement for the agents of Cruise Planners, an American Express Travel representative, to build their awareness and market knowledge.

Multi-destination promotions

• Year-on-year increase in the sales of travel packages in Canada during multi-destination cooperation with Taiwan Tourism Bureau: 183%
• One-on-one appointments with Hong Kong and Taiwan suppliers in Los Angeles and San Francisco arranged: 405

Our US and Canadian offices actively promoted multi-destination itineraries featuring Hong Kong and its neighbouring destinations to North American consumers. With the Taiwan Tourism Bureau, we held a partnership reception in Vancouver, entered into tactical co-ops with major airlines, cooperated with Canadian ethnic media Fairchild Media Group to produce a travel series, conducted trade events in Los Angeles and San Francisco to boost awareness of key US trade partners and organised travel missions as well as media and trade familiarisation visits. And with the Macao Government Tourism Office, we rolled out a search engine marketing co-op campaign to raise awareness of the vacation packages by key US tour operators featured on the HKTB’s official website.