In the India market, Hong Kong was earlier perceived as last minute destination, due to its favourable visa-free and on arrival visa policies. The destination is still visa free but, with the introduction of the Pre Arrival Registration (PAR) in January this year the destination has lost on those last moment planners. The destination is now striving to spread awareness about this new visa procedure in the India market.
Peter Hoslin, Regional Director, Europe and New Markets, Hong Kong Tourism Board said, “We have put a lot of effort to promote the PAR which was introduced in January this year. It is a bit of game changer as in the past Hong Kong was always seen as a last minute destination. We are still visa free but one has to fill out this requirement. We work very closely with the travel trade to explain the requirements. We are spreading this awareness and our immigration process is quite simple compared to other destinations. We are still in the transition stage till people are completely aware about this.”
From January to June 2017, the destination has witnessed a 20 per cent degrowth in arrivals from India with 207, 113 travellers as compared to 258,874 last year same period. Also, the overnights have suffered a 15 per cent decline with 149,089 compared to 175,371 last year. According to Hoslin a small part of this decline is the introduction of PAR, but there are a lot of factors.
Hoslin said, “There has been some uncertainty in terms of footfalls and PAR has also contributed a little bit in the decline of traveller footfall from India to Hong Kong. It’s a transition phase; trade is adjusting and explaining the travellers to book early, whereas in the past they did not worry. The new markets are typically quite volatile as they are less matured than Europe or other mature markets. We are not surprised by the decline in footfall from new markets.”
Speaking about the decline in transit visitations to Hong Kong, Hoslin said, “There are different factors for decline. There has been an increase in the number of flights between India and China, so earlier people who were transiting through Hong Kong are now going direct. The other factor is we are pegged to the US dollar, so we had a strong currency versus the rupee last year; fortunately it’s good to see rupee appreciating. When people become aware of the PAR the negative growth rate will change.”
The Hong Kong Tourism Board recently organised its annual travel mission in India with 31 Hong Kong trade partners joining the programme. Covering four key markets the travel mission began in Chennai, followed by Mumbai, Kolkata and New Delhi. India is now among the Top 15 source markets for Hong Kong in terms of visitor arrivals. Over the last three years, Hong Kong has seen a rise in younger travellers aged between 25-45 years within the leisure segment.
Hoslin said, “We have 31 Hong Kong travel trade partners this time. We want to make sure that our Hong Kong travel trade meet Indian trade fraternity and build more relationship with them. This is a very important part of our activity here in India. The response in Chennai and Mumbai as of now is excellent and better than last year. We usually have a strong turnout. The second half will be an improving trajectory. A big part is we are focusing strongly on the young segment from mid 20s to 40s. India has a large young population with good disposable income. They are willing to travel and experience the destination. We see potential in this segment and have attractive products for them. Apart from young we are targeting family segment.”
Speaking about the average spending and length of stay he added, “The average spend per person is static which is around HK$6000 per person. Last year we saw a small decline but t is typically in line with the strong HK$ and weaker rupee. We have got a good length of stay for India which is four days; we want to increase it to five or six nights.”
