Journey to Reopening
As social distancing and pandemic-related inbound control measures were gradually relaxed, local ambience started to pick up, with the community anticipating travel resumption to be around the corner. As such, starting from the second half of 2022, HKTB brought back to life a series of mega events, from arts and culture, Harbourfront experience, wine and dine to our East-meets-West festivity and sports, taking into account of public health considerations.
At the same time, HKTB diversified its promotions on an assortment of publicity channels, including traditional and social media, its extensive global network through HKTB’s own worldwide offices, to broadcast Hong Kong’s rich and unique tourism appeal to the world and increase Hong Kong’s visibility on the global radar.
Mega Events
Arts in Hong Kong
An Artistic Perspective into Hong Kong
Leveraging the staging of heavyweight international art events in town and the opening of world-class arts and cultural infrastructure such as M+ and Hong Kong Palace Museum, HKTB rode on the high season of cultural activities to step up promotions for its year-round art promotional platform “Arts in Hong Kong” to hype up the awareness of Hong Kong’s appeal as an art hub among travellers worldwide. On the one hand, the event addresses the new post-pandemic tourism trend of integration of culture and tourism and prepare Hong Kong for tourism competition with enhanced arts and cultural offerings; on the other hand, it continued to maintain the city’s international exposure while advocating in-depth arts and cultural tours in the community and interactive art-tech experiences, encouraging the public to explore the city from an art and cultural perspective.
Promoting World-Class Art Events in Town
HKTB capitalised on the return of international arts and cultural events, such as Art Basel Hong Kong, Art Central and French May Art Festival, to kick off its promotion of Hong Kong and showcase the return of large-scale art and cultural events to Hong Kong, encouraging the public to appreciate Hong Kong from a novel perspective.
Presenting Art with Innovative Technology
In addition, in response to the global trend of integrating art and technology, HKTB actively helped maximise the publicity on Hong Kong’s art-tech offerings of different events. For instance, HKTB assisted French May in promoting the interactive art Intraverse, which combined the performing art of dancing with interactive digital technology. Similarly, HKTB supported the promotion of The Shape of Light, an outdoor moving image work by Ellen Pau, as jointly commissioned by Art Basel and M+, and Resonance-in-Sight, an outdoor artwork installation with augmented reality (AR) by Hong Kong Museum of Arts. HKTB also introduced a browser-based avatar programme to enable the public to enjoy the fun of art tech.
Journey to West Kowloon
For the first time, HKTB hosted the first-ever community art exhibition Journey to West Kowloon in partnership with the Department of Cultural and Creative Arts of the Education University of Hong Kong, displaying an innovative collection of more than 250 neighbourhood-themed art pieces created by over 650 students from local communities from a new, youthful perspective. The 17-day exhibition attracted about 6,000 visitors and won a Gold Award and a Silver Award the international Galaxy Award 2022.
Moreover, HKTB expanded the exhibition to three major MTR stations – Central, Jordan and Yau Ma Tei, allowing the public to appreciate the youth’s original work during daily commute.
Connecting Overseas Market with Creativity
To reconnect overseas visitors with Hong Kong, HKTB invited 18 artists from six markets in Southeast Asia to produce inventive art pieces based on the city’s unique experiences in gastronomy, craftmanship, neon light culture, harbour view and many more in various formats and styles, which went viral on social media. The series of fun-filled artwork attracted widespread attention from more than 300 clippings in both Hong Kong and the respective visitor source markets.
In addition to Southeast Asian artists, the British Hong Kong Super Fan Jay Kaes gave birth to his Hong Kong-themed graffiti by inviting his followers and the public to choose a particular icon of Hong Kong. 12,000 of his readers opted for the Peak Tram, prompting Kaes to make a time lapsed video of the Peak Tram graffiti. More than 5.9 million viewed his story on how Hong Kong has inspired his artistic journey.
Echoing Jay’s artwork, HKTB also invited a Gen-Z sketch artist Tan Zehong to visit Hong Kong in person as the Hong Kong Palace Museum opened. In his first-ever visit to Hong Kong, Tan recreated the Hong Kong he had seen through his artistic touch.
Harbour Fiesta
A Brightly Lit Harbour in Celebration of the HKSAR’s 25th Anniversary
Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour has always been a favourite among travellers. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), The Tourism Commission and HKTB jointly presented the Harbour Fiesta, a special edition of A Symphony of Lights throughout the whole month of July. Over 50 buildings and locations on both sides of the harbour put on a multimedia light show with the theme “A New Era – Stability • Prosperity • Opportunity”. The special nightly light and music show provided a refreshing audio-visual experience for the public while displaying the city’s appeal as Asia’s World City to the Mainland and overseas.
The performance utilised a wide range of lighting effects to create a stunning visual experience. It combined lighting, LED screens and walls on various landmarks, including the Central Government Complex and Legislative Council Complex along the waterfront, symphonic music, and the brightly decorated Star Ferry to light up and energise the Victoria Harbour.
Hong Kong Wine & Dine Festival
Exploring Wine & Dine Offerings City-wide
Hong Kong’s unique East-meets-West and multi-cultural gastronomic experience is an important tourism asset that holds strong appeal for travellers from around the world. In November 2022, HKTB recreated its annual event, the Hong Kong Wine & Dine Festival, in an unconventional fashion, encouraging the public to support local businesses, and at the same time inspiring the trade to develop new products with local Hong Kong characteristics so as to exhibit Hong Kong’s unparalleled culinary appeal to the world and entice global audiences to make plans for visiting Hong Kong for the long-missed tastes of the city.
Similar to the previous edition, HKTB once again took the campaign to the whole city, joining hands with about 700 restaurants and bars to create quintessential cocktails infused with authentic tastes of Hong Kong under the theme of “Creative Cocktails Citywide”; the Festival also promoted the fused experience of gastronomy and Victoria Harbour in the “Wine on the Waterfront” promotion, featuring a multi-angle tour of the Victoria Harbour paired with wine and dine. Together with the offers in “Taste Around Town”, the Wine & Dine Festival invited the whole city to pamper themselves with the city’s trendies culinary offerings.
To encourage the local public to patronise local businesses, the Wine & Dine Festival gave away 50,000 free dine-in e-coupons on HKTB’s e-platform, boosting the city-wide dining ambience while providing substantial support to the F&B sector before travel resumption.
In addition, HKTB also promoted the city’s award-winning restaurants and bars on its YouTube channel to encourage the public to explore the city’ culinary offerings before travel resumed.
Hong Kong Tastes in the World
Riding on the Wine & Dine Festival, HKTB distributed a series of thematic videos on social media, and organised different kinds of thematic promotional activities in various source markets to testify the undiminished culinary global travellers that Hong Kong’s dining allure.
New Delights, Shared Tastes
In Mainland markets, HKTB co-operated with broadcaster in the Greater Bay Area to launch a promotional campaign with the theme of "New Delights, Shared Tastes", in which Hong Kong's online celebrities led Mainland visitors on a tour to discover new surprises in Hong Kong's food and beverage offerings. HKTB also rolled out various creatives on food and wine that are favourite among Mainland visitors to be disseminated on various social media channels.
Sharing the Table with Overseas Markets
In long-haul and new markets such as the US and Canada, HKTB rode on the Wine & Dine Festival to host trade engagement dinner and tasting to reconnect with travel trade partners and recall in them the Hong Kong gastronomic experience.
In France, HKTB worked with Paris-based Super Fan Anne Lataillade in making a Hong Kong recipe of the local’s favourite fried rice noodles with beef to share with her followers.
Hong Kong Cyclothon
A Remarkable Return of Sports Mega Event
In addition to arts and culture and gastronomy, Hong Kong’s world-class sports event experience is also another integral part of Hong Kong’s tourism appeal, which attracts the attention of sports lovers worldwide. In December 2022, HKTB successfully restaged “Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP) Hong Kong Cyclothon”, the largest outdoor sports event in town of the year, with the return of the popular “three-tunnel, three-bridge” route covering landmarks such as Tsing Ma Bridge, Ting Kau Bridge, Stonecutters Bridge and Cheung Ching Tunnel.
The cold weather and strong wind did not cool down the enthusiasm of participating cyclists. Demonstrating Hong Kong as a vibrant event capital and its energetic facet, about 4,000 cyclists participated in six cycling activities and professional races, dashing across the trafficways that are otherwise open for automobiles only.
Riding with the Professionals
Hong Kong Olympian medalist Sarah Lee and former Hong Kong team member Domino Chau, together with the Olympic fencing team members, participated in the 50-km and 30-km rides, sharing the fun of public cycling events with fellow cyclists.
Leveraging Publicity for Event Management
While cyclists have longed to ride in the event, HKTB employed a comprehensive publicity and communication strategy to ensure that the participants were aware of the technicality of the ride. As a result, the event saw a record-low single-digit incident. The series of communications generated a publicity value of over HK$40 million, and HKTB has won a Silver Award in Reputation Management in the PR Awards 2023.
Hong Kong WinterFest
Welcoming the Festive Season
Boasting a rich winter festivity, Hong Kong attracts countless visitors in winter for the festive experiences. HKTB seized the chances of Christmas and New Year to present waves of enticing festive events, with the heartwarming Hong Kong WinterFest kicking off the festive peak season in November.
The main attraction of the “Hong Kong WinterFest” was Christmas Wonderland by the harbour in the style of European towns at the Arts Park of West Kowloon Cultural District, where the city’s tallest outdoor 20-metre Christmas tree stood. The attraction attracted crowds of visitors and the local public.
The WinterFest-limited Christmas Wonderland featured eight charity booths with different festively themed DIY workshops for participants to prepare a unique, handmade gift to share their love with someone special while donating for a good cause, with spectacular live performances including cappella choir, ballet and orchestra, attracting a total of over 1 million visitors.
Voyaing the Wintery Hong Kong with K-Pop Legend
The city’s festivity even attracted South Korean superstar Rain to Hong Kong. HKTB invited the K-Pop legend to officiate the opening ceremony of the Christmas Wonderland and celebrate Christmas with a series of authentic experiences and exciting vibrancy in Hong Kong. Rain shared his experiences of travelling in Hong Kong, promoting the city to visitors and attracting them to come in person.
Hong Kong New Year Countdown Celebrations
Stepping into a New Year
As the grand finale for 2022, HKTB hosted the “Hong Kong New Year Countdown Celebrations” with an enhanced version of the A Symphony of Lights with pyrotechnic effects and laser light performances across the Victoria Harbour, showcasing Hong Kong’s unrelenting vitality.
The countdown celebration saw the heart-throbbing performances of an energetic line-up of performers including world-class classic piano recital by young Chinese pianist Niu Niu, cultural drumming performance by Gekko Drumming Club, and the award-winning Hong Kong Skipping Club showcase, taking the city-wide countdown excitement to a new height.
HKTB broadcast the celebration live through worldwide media and social media platforms to share the joy with the world in real time, attracting more than 100 media platforms in Hong Kong, the Mainland and many other countries and regions such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Australia, to report on the event, with the event covered by CCTV, Xinhua News Agency, CNN, BBC, CBC, Fox News, Euronews, Reuters, the Associated Press and many more.
Fortune Around Hong Kong
Hopping around with the Lucky Rabbit
As the local pandemic stabilised after Christmas and New Year Countdown, HKTB made early preparations for the return of global travellers to Hong Kong with the “Hong Kong Chinese New Year Celebrations” in January to further heighten the city’s joyous atmosphere. Featuring a newly created “lucky rabbit” which symbolised “happiness” to celebrate the Year of Rabbit, the Celebration highlighted Hong Kong’s world-renowned Victoria Harbour. Fortune Rabbit decorated Tsim Sha Tsui promenade, Wan Chai waterfront, Central Ferry Piers and the Tamar Park at Admiralty, spreading the blissful Chinese New Year Fortune to different corners across Victoria Harbour.
The Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism, Mr Kevin Yeung, visited the Lucky Rabbit at Tamar Park, supporting the promotion of Hong Kong’s East-meets-West cultural tourism.
HKTB has also launched the Lunar New Year Harbour Tour deals in conjunction with a number of trade partners offering marine sightseeing activities to motivate the public and visitors to enjoy Harbour-themed tourism while soaking up in the New Year’s ambience.
Upholding Global Visibility
During the pandemic, different destinations around the world strived to maintain their tourism competitiveness. For Hong Kong, HKTB upheld the city’s global visibility in various source markets, so as to swiftly drive tourism recovery as soon as travel resumed.
As such, HKTB not only boosted the positive ambience in town and restaged mega events, but also rolled out series of continuous promotions in different visitor source markets around the world to showcase Hong Kong’s unique appeal, ranging from new attractions, arts and culture, dining experiences to the great outdoors and deepened the impression of Hong Kong as a travel destination among visitors.
HKTB formulated a holistic strategy that combined mass media and online social media, and leveraged on the influence of stars, celebrities and KOLs to launch targeted promotions. Both the travel trade and different visitor segments were targeted in different promotions so that visitors would always remember Hong Kong’s vibrancy and attractiveness, and put Hong Kong on their list of destinations.
Reconnecting with Travellers as HKSAR Celebrated 25th Anniversary
With the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), HKTB capitalised on this important opportunity, and strengthened the ties with various source markets in the Mainland and overseas through a series of promotional activities to stimulate visitors’ interest and desire to visit Hong Kong.
Exciting Experiences in Brief
In Mainland markets, HKTB promoted all year round on various social platforms popular in the markets, including WeChat, Weibo and Douyin with a specially produced thematic video, covering Hong Kong’s year-round events and diverse experiences.
In another thematic promotion, HKTB invited Mainland netizens to share their experiences of visiting Hong Kong in the past 25 years. Local stars with Mainland presence including Pakho Chau, Janice Man, Hawick Lau and Ken Hung shared their travel recommendations for Hong Kong on Weibo, encouraging their fans to visit the city in person. The video series attracted 57 million views in total.
Document Hong Kong with Mainland official media
HKTB collaborated with the new media platforms of various Mainland official media outlets, including CCTV, XINHUANET and People’s Daily, to produce a series of television programmes commemorating the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the HKSAR.
Among those, HKTB partnered with CCTV to roll out four documentary series on various themes such as the city’s food, cultural experiences including the newly commissioned Hong Kong Palace Museum, cityscape and landscape from an aerial view, as well as living culture and heritage conservations. The four series were widely viewed by an audience of 450 million, generating a publicity value of HK$98 million.
China Chic Meets Hong Kong Style
Riding on the 25th Anniversary of the establishment of the HKSAR, the HKTB rolled out the “China Chic meets HK Style” O2O integrated marketing campaign in various Mainland cities. Advocating cultural openness, diversity and integration via arts co-creation and exchange, the campaign integrated traditional Chinese culture such as Beijing opera, calligraphy and Guangdong folk music with Cantopop, Hong Kong graffiti and street dances, nurtured genuine interests in Hong Kong among Mainland consumers, especially the young segments.
“China Chic meets HK Style” featured different physical activities in four Mainland cities namely Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu, and generated more than 700 mainstream media reports, with more than 36.7 million views on the campaign’s official Douyin page.
Canto-Pop Power
Being a trend indicator, the Cantonese pop culture was also popular among Mainland visitors. In this connection, HKTB collaborated with TVB to produce a tailor-made music video for the well-known music programme Infinity and Beyond, performed by a line-up of celebrated singers against the backdrop of the city’s iconic landmarks.
The video was broadcast on various Mainland platforms including Mango TV, TVB, Hunan TV, as well as streaming platform Bilibili and other social media platforms, reaching 230 million viewers.
A Miniature Hong Kong
Overseas, HKTB and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Singapore (HKETO) co-organised the “Hong Kong: Through the Looking Glass” miniature exhibition in Singapore, which featured 40 miniature models of Hong Kong’s diverse lifestyle, including culinary culture, traditional festivals, architecture and intangible cultural heritage. The exhibition not only demonstrated Hong Kong’s uniqueness as an international metropolis, but also showed that Hong Kong is a city where everything comes together, full of creativity and character. The two-week exhibition was also part of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and attracted more than 100,000 visitors.
An Immersive Hong Kong through Technology
Partnering with the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Dubai and Hong Kong Trade Development Council, HKTB promoted Hong Kong’s tourism appeal through a pop-up photobooth and VR headset giveaway, increasing Middle East high-yield travellers’ awareness of Hong Kong as a leisure tourism destination.
Recreating Hong Kong’s Gourmet Experiences
Food is the common language of the world. With the reputation of “Food Paradise”, Hong Kong has long attracted visitors with its exquisite gourmet experiences. As such, HKTB leveraged Hong Kong’s culinary offerings as a pulling factor, and continued to invite global travellers through various channels to come to Hong Kong to savour the authentic flavours of the city as soon as travel resumed.
A diversified foodie tour
Hong Kong’s food scene is filled with both time-tested tastes and the hippest trends. From alfresco stalls of “dai pai dong” to modern cafes, HKTB partnered with TVB to broadcast these experiences in the Mainland, Southeast Asia, Australia, Oceania and America through travel documentaries, including Dai Pai Dong, which introduced the genuinely local culture of Dai Pai Dong, and Guru Coffee Tour, in which popular actors Moses Chan and Benjamin Yuen, who are also known as coffee enthusiasts, took audiences around Hong Kong’s trendiest cafés, pairing the experiences with iconic tourist attraction spots in different neighbourhoods.
Top-notch food experience
HKTB appealed to travellers from Southeast Asia and Taiwan with the city’s top-notch gastronomic magic. The Kung Food! series in Singapore continued to showcase the city’s fine dining scene with award-winning chefs Vicky Cheng from VEA, Richard Ekkebus from Amber and Ricardo Chaneton from Mono, amassing more than 560 million viewers in the market. Another popular travel documentary Super Taste introduced the newest eateries in the city, highlighting the evergreen appeal of Hong Kong as a world-class food paradise.
Hong Kong tastes on-the-go
Hong Kong and South Korea share similar passion for food, especially on snacks and street food. HKTB partnered with local sauce maker Lee Kum Kee and the South Korea’s largest convenience chain store CU to launch a series of instant meal deals with a fusion of Hong Kong and Korean tastes to share authentic Hong Kong tastes with Korean consumers. To maximise the publicity effect, a flight ticket giveaway for food lovers who bought the products were conducted to allow the winner to come to Hong Kong and enjoy the city’s cuisine in person.
Exploring the Great Outdoors
Hong Kong’s hustle and bustle is just a stone’s throw away from its natural beauty. Travellers can escape the urban city and enjoy the tranquil countryside in just half an hour by boat or car. As consumers increasingly seek to experience nature, HKTB has been sustaining the “Hong Kong Great Outdoors” green tourism promotion for years to attract visitors to Hong Kong for its natural beauty.
Hong Kong’s Nature at a Click Away
The online platform of “Hong Kong Great Outdoors” introduced the city’s numerous itineraries to entice visitors to explore the green scene of Hong Kong, a series of sensorial experiences were also posted on HKTB’s social media to deliver the experiences to global travellers, reaching 19 million viewers online.
Hong Kong Hidden Gems Revealed on International Media
To enhance the global exposure of the campaign, HKTB has partnered with Bloomberg, a leading international media organisation, to produce a 45-minute documentary programme featuring interviews with historians and conservation experts on Hong Kong’s significant buildings and monuments, including the Tai O Heritage Hotel, Tai Kwun and Lai Chi Wo. The programme was viewed by 650,000 people in the UK.
Expats’ First-Hand Sharing
HKTB invited four French expats in Hong Kong to converse with podcast hosts in of Aller-Retour, a high-end travel magazine in France, sharing their daily life in Hong Kong and their love for the city’s evergreen great outdoors in one of the four podcast episodes.
With the rich resources of Hong Kong’s great outdoors, HKTB created a personality quiz for Canadian consumers on the social media-savvy platform BuzzFeed, recommending different great outdoor experiences to readers based on their personalised results.
Exploring Cheung Chau on VR
To bring the great outdoor experiences to South Asia, HKTB organised a hybrid experience at Multiplex Theatre at New Delhi, inspiring 60 Indian trade and media partners with wellness-themed activities while enjoying the splendid outdoor experiences of Hong Kong.
A Star’s Take on the Hong Kong Glamour
Follow the Star
To promote Hong Kong’s newest attractions and experiences, South Korean superstar Rain revisited his most missed experiences around the city in his visit to Hong Kong during the festive season of winter. Starting his holiday in Hong Kong with the newest 6th generation peak tram, Rain indulged himself in the food paradise and explored the novel tourism offerings in the West Kowloon neighbourhood. The K-pop legend generated a total of more than 430 media reports all over the world on his trip to Hong Kong.
Pop Meets Lux
Blending Hong Kong’s sophisticated cultural experiences such as heritage-turned-bourgeois checkpoints Tai Kwun, Lui Seng Chun, and The Blue House in Wan Chai with the city’s pampering luxury, HKTB invited Minho from the K-Pop sensational boy group SHINee to explore Hong Kong’s cultural and luxury tourism offerings in the Luxury magazine. The captivating experiences generated a 20-page feature.
Hong Kong History through the Lenses
Moreover, Hong Kong’s cultural heritage is also of great interest to tourists. HKTB partnered with Channel News Asia’s infotainment programme Remarkable Living to promote Hong Kong’s rich heritage through the story of Professor Douglas So, a local vintage camera collector in Hong Kong and how specific landmarks in the city, such as Tai Kwun, have inspired his photography and collection, promoting Hong Kong’s heritage tourism.
