Ongoing Trade Support
The strong support of the travel trade was crucial to the swift recovery of Hong Kong’s tourism industry after the COVID-19 pandemic. As an organisation responsible for promoting Hong Kong’s tourism, HKTB continued its close liaison and communication with the travel trade.
In 2022/23, HKTB provided the travel trade and tourism related sectors with more than HK$100 million support through a series of programmes, including those aimed to foster positive and cheerful local ambience, while providing the trade with a warm-up opportunity to get ready for travel resumption through stimulating local consumptions.
With the return of visitors from all over the world, HKTB not only launched the “Hong Kong Goodies” visitor consumption vouchers together with the local trade, but also led our trade partners to promote Hong Kong at various international travel trade shows through our strategies of “reaching out” and “seeing is believing” – arranging for the inbound and outbound Mainland and overseas travel trade to meet with the local travel trade, facilitate their communication and explore the potential business opportunities together. For more details, please refer to the section on “Hello Hong Kong”.
Together Towards New Horizons
In May 2022, HKTB organised its annual online trade briefing under the theme of “Together Towards New Horizons” to update trade partners with the latest recovery situation and tourism development directions of Hong Kong, as well as to introduce HKTB’s work plans, including the new “Hong Kong Summer Treats” campaign, which aimed to revive the positive ambience in the community and stimulate the recovery of local economy, including the “Hot Summer Deals” promotion.
HKTB also invited representatives from the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, the Airport Authority Hong Kong and the Kai Tak Sports Park to share the latest tourism trends in Hong Kong’s tourism assets and infrastructures, and to discuss how to shape Hong Kong as a world-class tourism destination through the integration of culture, sports and tourism.
The online update attracted more than 3,200 trade representatives from Mainland, overseas and local travel agents, attractions, hotels, airlines, retailers, restaurants, convention and exhibition operators, cruise lines as well as other tourism sectors.
Hong Kong BizConnect
To take an early step in gearing up the travel trade for tourism recovery, from July 2022 onwards, HKTB started a series of trade networking luncheons and “Connect Hong Kong” B2B trade engagement with partners in Mainland and overseas markets to prepare them in advance for Hong Kong’s travel resumption.
Similarly, in October 2022 onwards, HKTB launched a new four-day virtual exhibition and networking event “Hong Kong BizConnect” to reconnect travel trade in Hong Kong and major source markets. Through the “Hong Kong BizConnect” platform, the travel trade could showcase their latest products and services, and promote business co-operation and business opportunities through virtual pavilions, online business appointments, networking events and webinars. It facilitated the local travel trade to get ready for travel resumption.
The “Hong Kong BizConnect” was held in Thailand, the Philippines, Taiwan and South Korea, which successfully facilitated about 1,280 online meetings and connected more than 840 local trade partners and more than 140 trade partners in the source markets.
Stepping up partnership with Mainland
In March 2023, HKTB partnered with Fliggy, a renowned online travel portal in the Mainland, to launch eight online training programmes for trade partners in various Mainland markets, sharing with participants how to develop their online travel business in the Mainland, and assisting the networking between Fliggy’s sales staff and trade partners from Hong Kong. The training programmes attracted a total of 450 trade participants.
Upholding Quality Tourism Services
HKTB continued to encourage the travel trade to uphold services quality through its Quality Tourism Services (QTS) Scheme, with QTS-accredited merchants striving to deliver the best travel experience to visitors with their quality frontline services.
To acknowledge the quality services of outstanding staff and merchants under the QTS Scheme, HKTB organised the “Outstanding QTS Merchant & Service Staff Awards” again to commend those who served with quality and reward them for their excellent performances and efforts in promoting the culture of quality tourism services.
The 2022 awards received more than 400 individual nominations and the award ceremony was held in February 2023. HKTB also publicised the campaign through various media to encourage merchants and frontline staff to strive for excellence, further enhancing Hong Kong’s image as a quality tourism destination.
Striding Forward in a Steady Recovery
With Hong Kong’s tourism doors open and the city on its way to recovery, HKTB brought back the physical Tourism Overview in March 2023 in Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Themed “Striding Forward in a Steady Recovery”, the Tourism Overview gathered trade partners in Hong Kong together to exchange plans on pushing for tourism recovery. The event attracted more than 1,600 participants from local, Mainland and overseas travel agencies, attractions, hotels, airlines, retail, catering, MICE, cruise on-site and online.
In addition to presenting HKTB's work strategies, HKTB also invited Ms Jane Sun, Chief Executive Officer of Trip.com Group and Mr Anson Bailey, Head of Consumer and Retail, ASPAC, KPMG China, to share their in-depth analysis of post-pandemic tourism in the Mainland and insights into global and regional consumption trends. Their sharing gave inspirations to the trade in understanding the new opportunities and planning for their upcoming business strategies.
