Trade Partnership
The groundwork of HKTB’s efforts in supporting the tourism industry and maintaining Hong Kong’s regional and international tourism competitiveness builds on the cooperation with both our local trade members and partners in source markets. Even though inbound control measures were in place for containing COVID-19 development, the HKTB worked tirelessly to strengthen trade communications to create synergy for the works of driving tourism recovery, while seizing the chance to uplift the service quality and visitor experiences.
Strengthening Trade Communications
HKTB Tourism Update
The HKTB held the annual Tourism Update with the theme “Navigating the Future Together” online with local and source market trade members in May to discuss latest tourism trends and sharing details of the HKTB’s latest strategic plans with around 2,700 trade representatives from Hong Kong, mainland and overseas travel agencies, attractions, hotels, airlines, retailers, restaurants, meeting and exhibition operators, cruise lines, and other travel sectors.
In addition to the HKTB’s update, the event also hosted two industry forums – “Seize the Business Development Opportunities in the Mainland and Greater Bay Area” and “Global Hong Kong Brands Gear Up for the Recovery” – to provide participants with insights on getting ready for travel resumption, enlisting a wide spectrum of tourism figureheads of in Mainland and Hong Kong such as Meituan, ByteDance, Alibaba online travel agent Fliggy, Wharf Hotels, Cathay Pacific, Klook, and Black Sheep Restaurant Group.
On-going Alliance for Recovering High-Yield Segment
Meetings, Incentive travels, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) can bring high-yield visitors to Hong Kong. As such, the HKTB has proactively engaged MICE trade partners in Hong Kong and source markets with a view to strengthening regional alliance and driving the revival and development of the MICE sector; the HKTB targeted some national corporates and the world’s top 500 enterprises through building up Hong Kong’s presence with sales pitches and one-on-one on-site business matching appointments in major industry events to encourage these corporates to organise MICE events in Hong Kong. In 2021/22, the HKTB reached out to MICE trade partners and associations in both Mainland and worldwide markets and participated in related trade events, including 2021 China Sourcing Seminar (Shanghai), 2021 Direct Selling Forum (Beijing), Trip.Biz corporate seminar in Hefei, IT&CM China 2020 virtual event, American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), International Association of Professional Congress Organisers (IAPCO), MICE India and Luxury Travel Congress (MILT), Worldwide Exhibition for Incentive Travel, Meetings, and Events (IMEX) America and the IBTM Global Meeting & Incentives Exhibition in Barcelona, Spain. On these events, the HKTB shared Hong Kong’s latest situations and presented the city’s core strength in MICE and professional services with a view to encouraging these influential MICE associations to help bring in events to Hong Kong.
Ramp up Exposure in Travel Trade through Trade Shows
In addition, The HKTB participated in various trade shows, such as China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) Webinar, China (Guangdong) International Tourism Industry Expo (CITIE), China International Import Expo (CIIE), and Guangzhou International Travel Fair (GITF). The HKTB promoted Hong Kong to increase the city’s exposure among the travel trades in visitor source markets.
Together with the participation in MICE trade events, the HKTB engaged over 2,300 corporate and association organisers and completed more than 170 offline business matching appointments.
Continuous Pursuit of Excellence
To gear up for welcoming back visitors with enhanced services and hardware throughout the visitor journey, the HKTB worked with the tourism sector to continue to improve Hong Kong’s travel experiences. On one hand, the HKTB extended its digital visitor services to more online platforms to cater for different consumer needs; on another, the HKTB further improved the Anti-epidemic Hygiene Certification Scheme to provide reassurance to consumers. Moreover, the Quality Tourism Services (QTS) Association of the HKTB also rolled out a couple of initiatives for cheerleading the best practise of quality frontline services, which provided trade members and merchants the support they need to get prepared for the return of visitors.
Making the Digital Journey Available on Social Media
Under new travel trends, it is expected that more travellers will plan their trips ahead, and preferred remote, contactless inquiry even when they are in town to address their social distancing concerns. As such, the HKTB continued to optimise various digital service channels to ensure that travellers can get the latest travel essentials and sightseeing information round-the-clock.
In addition to LINE chat, Facebook Messenger, Web Chat on DiscoverHongKong.com and WhatsApp, the HKTB extended its Artificial Intelligence (AI) live chat service to Instagram, one of the most popular social media apps among young travellers. Visitors can obtain essential travel information via the automated chatbot timely, instead of waiting for a live agent in a different time zone to answer them. In addition to sightseeing information, the chatbot can provide information related to quarantine arrangement, vaccination requirements and medical services etc. The service has handled 30,000 enquiries via digital channels, with over 75% of responses delivering accurate answers to consumers.
Extra Assurance on Hong Kong as a Clean and Destination
As Hong Kong saw the return of social and economic activities, the Anti-epidemic Hygiene Certification Scheme, jointly rolled out by the HKTB and the Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency, extended the certification to cover event venues, with a view to better preparing the related business sectors and providing better coverage to event organisers and participants. Some major museums and performance venues have been included since the extension, with more than 2,850 outlets accredited in total.
To help the tourism-related sectors pave way for the return of travellers, especially from the imminent markets on the Mainland, the HKTB partnered with Dianping, a popular lifestyle app in Mainland markets, to create identification logos on the Dianping profile pages of certified outlets, so that mainland consumers can identify which outlets are certified.
Multi-pronged Support for Merchants
The HKTB also navigated the challenges with merchants through a multi-pronged support approach. During 2021/22, the HKTB continued to provide a series of supports for Quality Tourism Services (QTS) Scheme merchants and staff . The HKTB extended the full renewal fee waiver for all QTS-accredited merchants, and offered a 50% reduction on the application fee for new participants.
Besides fiscal support, the QTS Association organised a series of free seminars and training workshops for QTS merchants to foster a positive service culture and maximise frontline service performance of tourism-related sectors. Throughout the year, a total of ten sessions were organised with more than 1,200 participants.
Moreover, to demonstrate Hong Kong’s hospitality, the QTS Association also kick-started a new campaign to promote sincere quality services. In December 2021, the QTSA invited reality show winner-turned-pop stars to serve as café and apparel boutique managers for one day. The experiences of the two celebrity shop runners were broadcast in a reality series on local TV to motivate frontline service staff s to deliver quality services.