ITV

Category: Hong Kong

  • Hong Kong tourism to capitalise on ‘winterfest’

    MUMBAI: The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) will stage its Hong Kong WinterFest programme for the third consecutive year from 26 November 2004 to 2 January 2005. The Board expects that the programme will boost visitor arrivals by 13.4 per cent to 2.49 million during the five-week period.
     
     
    Along with other mega-events throughout the year, it will help bring the total arrivals for 2004 to a historic high level, informs an official release.

    At a press conference to announce the event details, HKTB executive director Clara Chong said that visitor arrivals for the first nine months of 2004 had already surpassed those recorded for the entire 12 months of 2003. “With the added appeal of Hong Kong WinterFest, we are confident that the growth momentum will continue through the last quarter of the year,” she said. “We have therefore revised our forecast for 2004 from 20.5 million to 21.3 million.
     
     
    “The WinterFest programme has enjoyed phenomenal success in the past two years. Last year, it attracted almost 2.2 million visitors during the five-week event period, 8% more than in 2002. As well as helping us set new monthly records for December, it has successfully turned our winterfestive season, which normally has fewer business and long-haul visitors, into another peak travel season,” Chong explained.

    To promote Hong Kong’s multi-dimensional attractions to more visitor segments, notably couples, families and lovers of shopping and dining, the HKTB will introduce even more enticing elements around the theme of ‘Love and Care’ this year. “Leveraging on the Christmas spirit of love and care, we will add more family-friendly elements, which will help us reinforce Hong Kong’s reputation as a family destination and pave way for the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland,” Chong added.
     
     
    This year, the HKTB will transform Statue Square – Hong Kong’s central business district – into a Nordic Santa’s Town. In addition, there will be Hong Kong’s highest outdoor dazzling Christmas tree and a romantic mistletoe boulevard in the vicinity. These enticing elements will ensure a warm and merry holiday and an unforgettable experience for visitors and local residents, making Hong Kong the focus of Christmas and New Year celebrations in Asia, the release further added.

  • Hong Kong tourism taps country’s film heritage

    MUMBAI: Hong Kong tourism’s latest venture Avenue of Stars is targeted at visitors who have got a strong interest in the country’s movie culture.

    The Avenue of Stars features pavement plaques commemorating Hong Kong movie personalities past and present; milestone features outlining the local film industry’s 100-year history; a welcoming video; sculptures; and souvenir kiosks, all of which enable visitors to see and learn more about their favourite Hong Kong movies and movie stars.
     
     
    Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) was inspired by surveys that showed 14 per cent of visitors are interested in the Hong Kong movie scene locations while 12 per cent are interested in visits to film and television studios. To address such interest, the HKTB conceived the Avenue of Stars in 2000, as part of a feasibility study into potential new visitor attractions for Hong Kong.

    The Board is preparing a Hong Kong Movie Odyssey Guide on locations used for a number of favourite Hong Kong movie scenes, which will allow visitors to explore the city’s many facets and experience the lives portrayed in the films.

    HKTB arranged a meeting between Bollywood star Akshay Kumar and Hong Kong’s pride Jackie Chan in Hong Kong on 16 May 2004. Chan is Hong Kong tourism ambassador.

    It was a one-hour meeting in Jackie’s private office in Kowloon where the two superstars caught up over Chinese tea to discuss films, family, fights and more. The two met and discussed their first love – martial arts and of course Hong Kong.

    Chan personally gave Akki baba a guided tour of his office and even showed him exclusive footage of his new film. After that the duo settled down for an hour-long chat. While Akshay expressed his eagerness to shoot in Hong Kong, Chan sounded excited about his upcoming maiden trip to India. “Yes, I’m all set to come to India soon to shoot for a film”, informed Jackie.

    Akshay visited Hong Kong with wife Twinkle and son Aarav as Chan’s private guests. The historical meeting will be aired on Star News in Masand ki Pasand show on Saturday, 22 May.

    The HKTB has been working closely with the global travel trade to package and promote the Avenue of Stars along with various movie-related activities such as Hong Kong Film Awards and the Hong Kong International Film Festival. In addition, the Board will collaborate with the trade to develop tour packages and arrange familiarization visits for the trade and media to create “word of mouth” publicity in different markets.

  • Hong Kong receives two million plus visitors in August

    MUMBAI: Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) has announced that the visitor arrivals for the month of August 2004 have exceeded two million. The board claims that this feat is achieved for the first time in its history, breaking July’s record of 1.99 million arrivals.
    Commenting on the Sars impact, an official release says Hong Kong has already made a ‘V-shaped’ recovery from the impact. August’s total of 2,066,469 arrivals represents an encouraging 25.6 per cent growth on the same month in 2003 – a fair benchmark of progress as for the first time since February, year-on-year comparisons are not significantly influenced by the “Sars factor”, states the release.
    August is always a strong month for leisure travel, coinciding with school summer holidays in many key markets, while a major attraction this year was the HKTB’s Hong Kong Shopping Festival, which started in late June and continued right through July and August. Total arrivals during the Festival period reached 4.34 million and at least HK$1.5 billion worth of retail and restaurant spending was generated, the release adds.

    HKTB executive director Clara Chong said that further new records could well be set in the last quarter of the year which was always considered a “peak season” for Hong Kong. “We have the China National Day ‘Golden Week’ coming up at the beginning of October, and expect to welcome around 400,000 Mainland visitors during that 10-day travel period,” she noted. “In addition, October and November always see a lot of business traffic as many major conventions and exhibitions take place at this time. Then in December, we shall again be launching a major Hong Kong WinterFest promotion to draw family travelers from around the region.”
    “Nevertheless, there are still a few markets such as Japan and Taiwan that have not regained their 2002 levels,” Ms Chong added. “We are making strong efforts to give Hong Kong a fresh new image in these markets with a series of trade and consumer promotions highlighting the city’s lesser-known attractions.”

    According to the official release, arrivals have now passed the 14 million mark in the first eight months of 2004, totaling 14,069,792. This is 58.4 per cent ahead of the same period in 2003 and 35.6 per cent ahead of the 2002 figure.

    India contributed 19,889 August arrivals, 24.7 per cent more than in August 2003 as the Indian travelers were attracted by special packages offered during the Hong Kong Shopping Festival. For the first eight months of 2004, total arrivals for India now stand at 161,555, 64.4 per cent ahead of the same period in 2003 and 30.7 per cent ahead of 2002.

    Average occupancy rate across all categories of hotels and tourist guesthouses in August was 90 per cent, compared with 88 per cent in August 2003. Top tariff hotels averaged 85 per cent occupancy while those in the second tier reached 93 per cent.