Stepped up trade promotions and partnerships riding on the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the HKSAR

• Sales from airline co-op campaigns for the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the HKSAR: over 13,000 air tickets and close to 5,000 packages
• Travel packages sold by Ctrip, Tuniu and Fliggy throughout the year: over 1.5 million
• Total publicity value generated from partnerships with Tencent and Mafengwo: over HK$32 million

Riding on the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), we strengthened our partnership with key airlines and travel agents including Air China, Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong Airlines, China Eastern Airlines and China Travel Service, and rolled out special travel packages through digital and traditional media channels to arouse consumer awareness of the celebration and draw FIT visitors from targeted cities. We also continued to work with popular online travel agents like Ctrip, Tuniu and Fliggy to roll out new products targeting young and family travellers as well as introduce exclusive offers for the 20th anniversary celebration and promotional windows.

Targeting the digitally savvy Mainland consumers who are in the habit of getting travel ideas and advice through online platforms and travel websites, we renewed our partnership with Tencent and entered into a strategic collaboration with Mafengwo to create positive stories riding on the 20th anniversary celebration, with a view to reviving Hong Kong’s image as a welcoming, hospitable and chic destination.

To strengthen emotional bonding while sustaining our “Best of all, it’s in Hong Kong” brand campaign promotion, we incorporated the 20th anniversary promotional message into our brand videos which were shown on key national video portals.

KOL endorsement to capture the young segment

• Publicity value generated by “Day Day Up”, “Happy Camp”, “Amazing Race”, “Go Fighting” and “Chef Nic”: over HK$600 million

To revive Hong Kong’s tourism appeal among Chinese visitors, especially those born in the 1980s and the 1990s, who accounted for 70% of China’s outbound travel market share in 2016 according to a market research study¹, we invited celebrities and KOLs to endorse our promotions.

In February 2018, we appointed popular Hong Kong-born pop idol Jackson Wang as the “Hong Kong Tourism Envoy” to engage young Mainland visitors. A crowning event was held and the news was promoted across various social media platforms. As part of the promotion, we invited Jackson to ride on the HKTB float during the International Chinese New Year Night Parade.

Apart from soliciting support from influencers, we stimulated interest about Hong Kong by inviting high-rating Mainland reality shows, including “Day Day Up”, “Happy Camp”, “Amazing Race”, “Go Fighting” and “Chef Nic” to film in Hong Kong. These shows, which featured famous celebrities from Mainland and Hong Kong and were widely broadcast on provincial satellite TV channels and online TV platforms, helped promote Hong Kong’s tourism appeal to a wide audience.

During the Halloween promotional window, we collaborated with Wang Nima, an online character popular among young netizens for his humour, to promote festive themed products on Yaochufa.com, an online travel platform. The character’s comical style matched perfectly with the Halloween promotion.

1. “Chinese Tourists Spend 229 Billion USD in 2015.” Press Release | GfK Global, Gfk, 14 Jan. 2016, www.gfk.com/insights/press-release/chinese-tourists-spend-229-billion-usd-in-2015/.

Tapping into new MICE segments and markets and promoting cruise tourism on social media

• The achievements of integrated MICE events in Guangzhou and Chengdu: 21 MICE groups with close to 7,000 arrivals
• Impressions for cruise seasonal promotions: Over 380 million

We cooperated closely with our trade and media partners to promote Hong Kong as a MICE and cruise destination. Through corporate outreach, we successfully partnered with direct selling industry media partner HOPE MEDIA to open up new opportunities for incentive tourism. This partnership brought us two Mainland familiarisation trips. The customised itineraries allow MICE event organisers, corporate decision makers and convention organisers from an array of industries and academies to experience Hong Kong’s appeal for incentive events. In addition to developing new segments, we organised two integrated MICE events to tap the potential of new markets such as Guangzhou and Chengdu.

For cruise tourism, we adopted seasonal promotions supported by media collaboration with popular news apps, Toutiao and Netease, partnership with social media KOLs and tag-on promotion on media channels, targeting the family and young segments. Riding on World Dream Cruise’s maiden voyage ceremony in late 2017, we launched a series of advertisements and social media communications on WeChat to generate awareness and arouse consumer aspiration to enjoy a cruise holiday in Hong Kong.