The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) staged its annual travel mission in India from August 27-30, 2018 covering key source markets such as Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi that contributes over 70 per cent of our visitor arrivals. This year HKTB brought a large delegation of 37 Hong Kong trade partners from Hong Kong land operators, hoteliers, cruise companies and popular attractions to meet and network with 600 travel professional and agency owners from India travel trade from Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai Pune, Ahmedabad and New Delhi. The travel mission not only facilitated business appointments for Indian and Hong Kong trade partners but also highlighted HKTB’s brand platform ‘Discover Hong Kong Like a Local’ to introduce new and unique core experiences to Indian travellers.
Hong Kong continues to focus promoting the destination to young, affluent mid-career, independent travellers from India who is interested in more authentic, local experience-based itineraries. In order to appeal to this group of travellers, Indian trade partners were introduced to most updated attractions and products focusing in core experiences of ‘Living Local Culture’, ‘Great Outdoors’ and ‘Dining’ and the major marketing programmes launched in India during the travel mission.
HKTB’s recent destination promotion included the collaboration with Bollywood actress Yami Gautam who introduced unique local cultural experiences and her favourite picks to her followers of social media and through major media channels. HKTB also recently launched its tripartite collaboration with Klook and Cathay Pacific Airways (CX) in India. Through the collaboration Klook help curating diverse destination experiences that helps re-invigorating interest in Hong Kong as a holiday destination. Experiences include eclectic activities like such as Lantau Cultural & Heritage Insight Tour, dining at Lin Heung Kui in Sheung Wan, sampling street food (Tai Cheong Bakery), AquaLuna SOL Cruise, Sampan Ride at Aberdeen, Helicopter Tours, Pub Crawling, Dolphin/Penguin Encounters at Ocean Park, Cliff Ziplining & Abseiling, Kayaking in Sai Kung and more. CX, customers booking on CX India website or the Mobile app from India to Hong Kong can enjoy additional discounts (up to 60% savings) on key attractions in Hong Kong via KLOOK platform.
To introduce the lesser known great outdoor experience in Hong Kong, a special B2B digital contest targeting to educate Indian trade partners was held that would encourage them to create unique itineraries and experiences for #GreatOutdoorsHongKong. Hong Kong great outdoor experiences and the destination unique dining and local culture experiences will be promoted through collaboration with Indian GoPro advocate and TV travelogue program to be launched in the 2H of 2018.
Puneet Kumar, Senior Manager, Market Development (India) of HKTB said “We are targeting young and affluent Indian travellers who like to spend time discovering the destination and its unique experience. To engage this segment “Discover Hong Kong Like a Local” focuses on introducing and promoting Hong Kong’s living local culture through walking tours in rejuvenated districts like Old Town Central and Sham Shui Po, Great Outdoors through soft adventure activities such as hiking trails and cycling routes closer to the comfort of down town, dining & nightlife experience through roof top bars, Michelin star rated street food stalls, unique dining concepts and Hong Kong Wine & Dine Festival in addition to our iconic sights and retail experiences in Hong Kong. This year our mission is to equip and enable our Indian trade partners to get a fresher perspective of Hong Kong so that they can create new and exciting itineraries for their clients.”
HKTB is aiming to drive upward arrival growth trend from both leisure and business travel segments through its programs scheduled for rest of 2018.
