Holiday At Home
Extending the spirit of “Holiday at Home” first rolled out in 2020, the HKTB continued to boost local ambience through a series of local tourism initiatives, with a view to unceasingly encouraging the local public to keep exploring the city and rediscovering the charm of Hong Kong from a new perspective, while sending out a positive message to global consumers that Hong Kong remains a vibrant and attractive international travel destination. Meanwhile, the active spirit of social and economic activities also served to support local businesses amidst the pandemic, especially with the multiplying effect of the Spend-to-Redeem promotions, while providing tourism-related sectors an opportunity to warm up to welcome back visitors when travel resumes.
From “What We See” to “How We See”
To motivate the local public to explore Hong Kong and be its own tourist, especially the new attractions and hidden gems, the HKTB introduced six new themes to explore the city with new perspectives through social media activations, namely “urban garden”, “light & shadow”, “geometry”, “street exploration”, “colour mix & match” and “exotic holiday”. The HKTB mobilised a group of celebrities and influencers to share their experiences in unexplored locations with a view to encouraging the public to appreciate the hidden gems around us. More than 200 influencers created social posts for the campaigns with over 2 million views and 500,000 engagements.
Expanding the
Spend-to-Redeem Programme
In light of the excellent public reception of the first round of Spend-to-Redeem “Free Tours” programme launched in 2020, the HKTB extended the Spend-to- Redeem programme with new rounds of the activity, with additional elements to enrich the Free Tours experiences. The programme was also expanded to the hotel sector with discounts on staycation offers for the public to incentivise the local to enjoy the hospitality services and experiences in Hong Kong. In addition, the HKTB also launched a “Free Tours Lucky Draw” to encourage the public to get vaccinated against COVID-19 during the pandemic.
Free Local Tours with New Elements
The HKTB launched the second round of “Free Tours” in May 2021 to meet the popular demand from the public. The new round of “Free Tours” offered a doubled quota of 20,000 and new tourism elements of novel themes, such as stargazing workshops, ethnic cultural dance class, recycled paper DIY and fishing village excursions, to allow the public to explore and appreciate Hong Kong from new perspectives. The second round of Free Tours offered around 190 itineraries, and each itinerary took participants to at least two points of interest, such as photo hotspots and attractions with unique Hong Kong characteristics. The second round of “Free Tours” was extremely well received, with the first batch of itineraries full booked within four days of enrolment, while all quotas of the second batch were filled on the day of registration.
The second round of “Free Tours” was extremely well received, with the first batch of itineraries full booked within four days of enrolment, while all quotas of the second batch were filled on the day of registration.
Offering Incentives to Vaccination
In support of the Government’s COVID-19 vaccination programme to create a safe environment, the HKTB also introduced a “Free Tours Lucky Draw” in August 2021 to reward the vaccinated with quota to join the tours. A total of 20,000 tour places were given out in the Lucky Draw.
Staycation Delights
Similar to Free Tours, consumers could enjoy a discount of HK$500 for any accommodation staycation offers available in participating non-quarantine hotels upon spending HK$800 at physical retail and dining outlets in town. Two rounds of “Staycation Delights” were launched in March to May 2021 and August to October 2021 respectively and contributed to a total of about 40,000 hotel room nights. The “Staycation Delights” programme was found to have effectively raised the public’s awareness towards hotel offerings among the local public as hotel room occupancy gradually rose since the launch of the campaign. In addition, the two rounds of programme brought a direct subsidy of HK$20 million to about 150 participating hotels. It also contributed HK$54.5 million local consumptions and generated a total revenue of HK$48 million in participating hotels. Altogether, the HKTB provided the trade partners with direct subsidies of HK$40 million through the Spend-to- Redeem programmes and Free Tours Lucky Draw.
The “Staycation Delights” programme was found to have effectively raised the public’s awareness towards hotel offerings among the local public as hotel room occupancy gradually rose since the launch of the campaign. In addition, the two rounds of programme brought a direct subsidy of HK$20 million to about 150 participating hotels. It also contributed HK$54.5 million local consumptions and generated a total revenue of HK$48 million in participating hotels.
Altogether, the HKTB provided the trade partners with direct subsidies of HK$40 million through the Spend-to- Redeem programmes and Free Tours Lucky Draw.
Supporting Cruise-to-Nowhere Itineraries
Cruise tourism is one of the key sectors of our tourism industry. The resumption of cruise-to-nowhere itineraries in July 2021 allowed the public to enjoy cruise travel before the resumption of cross-boundary / border travel. The HKTB worked closely with cruise trade partners to promote among consumers the dedicated hygiene and safety protocols as well as anti-epidemic measures newly promulgated, and to disseminate relevant messages through various marketing channels, thereby restoring public confidence over cruise travel. A total of 88 sailing were completed within the year, serving over 130,000 passengers.
Besides, the HKTB strengthened its promotion among the younger consumer segment, so as to stimulate demand on cruise tourism from the local market. The HKTB joined hands with Joyce Cheng, a local artist who is greatly popular among youngsters, to promote culinary offerings, outdoor experiences and wellness relaxations on board from a new and energetic perspective. The HKTB also collaborated with leading local travel and lifestyle media to feature cruise-to-nowhere itineraries by showcasing a wide spectrum of experiences and enjoyment on board.