Global
Promotions

Following the opening of the XRL and the HZMB, we put forth a series of timely promotions to maximise awareness of the two new transport facilities.

The selling point of the XRL is the speedy and comfortable experience for travelling between central China and Hong Kong, which we promoted on Tencent’s numerous digital platforms, targeting consumers in Hunan and Hubei, two key cities in central China. At the same time, we organised a familiarisation trip for TV media from southern China, including Guangdong TV, Shenzhen TV, Fujian TV, Xiamen TV and Jiangxi TV, to show them the state-of-the-art XRL West Kowloon Station and nearby attractions.

The HZMB, meanwhile, has strengthened the transportation network within the Greater Bay Area. By engaging leading media outlets from cities near the HZMB, such as Guangzhou, Zhuhai, Jiangmen and Zhongshan, we raised awareness of the convenience brought by the HZMB, and promoted the attractions close to the bridge, together with the HKTB’s events and campaigns.

We also worked with the two largest national news portals, Netease and Xinhua.net, to promote the XRL and HZMB. Through their extensive networks, encompassing their official websites, news apps, and WeChat and Weibo accounts, our messages reached hundreds of millions in the market.

To turn awareness into action, we partnered with travel agents from 10 cities along the route of XRL to develop inaugural tour products with attraction offers in line with the HKTB’s seasonal promotions to draw visitors from southern, central and western China, and rolled out thematic products featuring the HZMB with key travel agents in the Greater Bay Area.

In February 2018, we appointed Hong Kong-born pop idol Jackson Wang as Hong Kong Tourism Envoy. Wang is a familiar face in the Mainland, having endorsed numerous big brands. Through his influence, we were able to capture the attention of the young segment.

During 2018/19, we launched Magic Book, a mega integrated digital campaign, which featured Jackson’s video, audio greetings and AR games to provide consumers with an immersive experience of Hong Kong’s entertainment, arts, sports and dining. The campaign was widely promoted on several market’s most used digital platforms, including Tencent, Youku, iQiyi, Weibo, Sohu and Bilibili, and the Weibo accounts of six major trade partners. In October, we filmed a video of Wang exploring the Hong Kong Wine & Dine Festival to sustain publicity for the campaign while promoting the culinary event.

The publicity programmes were supported by trade promotions, including new tourism products around four mega events rolled out with Ctrip and endorsed by Wang. And in a cooperation with Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon, we produced in-flight videos featuring Wang to entice travellers with the fun things to do in summer and the wine-and-dine experiences in autumn.

Reality shows are a big thing in the Mainland. During the year, we worked with two prominent programmes to increase Hong Kong’s exposure in the market.

The first show was “Chef Nic”, a food travelogue hosted by Hong Kong superstar Nicolas Tse. In one episode, Tse brought viewers to Hong Kong, his birthplace, to discover its extraordinary dining as well as other experiences. The programme was broadcast on Zhejiang Satellite TV, iQiyi and Youku, and the in-flight entertainment programmes of Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon.

The second programme was “The Little Grand Tour”, a new family edutainment show aired on top online TV platform Tencent Video. Through the adventures of the child participants, Hong Kong was showcased as an ideal family destination.

The XRL not only facilitated travel between the Mainland and Hong Kong; it gave birth to a novel idea: rail-cruise travel. In presenting this concept to Mainland consumers, we worked with online travel programme “Dream Runner” to produce five episodes about taking the XRL to Hong Kong and embark on a cruise holiday, which were distributed through different online channels. We also generated consumer demand through leading national news portal Netease by showcasing the unique rail-cruise experience.

Catering to the family and young segments, which present the largest potential to cruise tourism, we launched an integrated marketing campaign with lifestyle magazine Cityzine in the summer. Through a feature story, articles generated by a familiarisation trip by Cityzine editors and their families, social media posts of parent KOLs, and co-branded collaboration with family-friendly restaurant Pizza Hut, we created buzz about summer cruise holidays in Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, our first-ever partnership with Royal Caribbean Cruises Service (China) Company introduced onshore tours and attractions like theme parks to the two target segments with highly positive response.

Our Mainland MICE team made great effort on corporate outreach and tapping into new markets. During the year, we organised familiarisation trips for 20 corporate clients from the direct selling, insurance, pharmaceutical and retail sectors, and organisers of annual industry forums and conference associations. Leveraging the first China Convention Forum in Beijing, we partnered with the China Business Event Federation to host a themed lunch for over 300 Federation members. This event has strengthened our connections with key industry players in the Mainland and generated good results, including the biggest-ever MICE event for Hong Kong, namely the 2019 Mary Kay Leadership Conference.

We also identified 16 secondary cities presenting potential for Hong Kong’s MICE business. Two trade seminars were conducted to engage MICE agents from Xi’an, Zhengzhou, Taiyuan, Shijiazhuang, Changsha, Wuhan, Guiyang and Nanchang. Another trade seminar was organised in Zhuhai for agents from cities in or near the Greater Bay Area, including Zhuhai, Dongguan, Foshan, Zhongshan, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, complemented by a familiarisation trip for them to experience the superb connectivity and convenience offered by the newly launched HZMB and XRL, and the diversified MICE products and venues in Hong Kong.