India is without doubt one of the worldwide markets which the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) is pinning excessive hopes on the again of “very wholesome and promising” restoration in vacationer numbers from India for the reason that nation was reopened for vacationers after Covid in March, 2023. The Indian inbound into Hong Kong has rebounded strongly with the general numbers exceeding the pre-Covid numbers in 2024 itself.
“There was a 70 per cent improve in Indian arrivals to Hong Kong in 2024 in comparison with 2023. In 2024, we’ve got surpassed the 2018 arrival numbers already,” confirms Marilyn Tham, basic supervisor for MICE, Cruise and Mega Occasions, in an interplay with ETTravelWorld on the sidelines of a mega familiarisation trip organised for Indian corporate travel operators and choose media from 5 completely different cities.
As incharge for Conferences and Incentive journey and mega occasions, what gave Tham extra pleasure is the rise in ‘M’ and ‘I’ (conferences and incentive) elements within the total MICE from India. “The conferences and incentive journey from India has doubled in 2024. India is proving to be a big meetings and incentives marketplace for Hong Kong,” she stated.
She stated that Indian vacationers, particularly the company section, considers Hong Kong as a “extremely matured” assembly and incentive vacation spot and subsequently the aspiration for HKTB is to “additional enhance and maintain” their efforts which may foster each “pull and push” elements for the vacation spot within the India market.
Elucidating the explanations behind the wholesome restoration, Marilyn rolled out an inventory of recent sights which have come up in Hong Kong in the previous few years. “Though worldwide borders remained closed, we didn’t cease constructing new discoveries even in the course of the pandemic. There are such a lot of new discoveries to maintain the guests’ pursuits going within the vacation spot in Hong Kong,” she stated.
Whereas Disneyland Hong Kong is sort of standard with the Indian market, the newly opened Frozenland inside Disneyland is without doubt one of the first Frozen amongst Disneylands internationally, she stated.
“Company teams can constitution areas inside these parks and maintain cocktail receptions, meet and greet with Disney characters, do customized occasions,” she stated.
The West Kowloon Art District going through iconic Victoria Harbour is one other addition, she stated. The artwork district homes two massive museums – M+ and Palace Museum. The Xiqu Centre within the coronary heart of West Kowloon is a shocking architectural marvel. The 8-storey constructing devoted for the preservation and promotion of Chinese language conventional theatre, particularly Cantonese opera, consists of two theatres, a seminar corridor and eight studios. The services of the Xiqu Centre together with the Grand Theatre with over 1,000 seats can be utilized for conferences and conferences on non- performing days. Marilyn additionally spoke in regards to the continuous infrastructure upgradation that’s occurring within the East
Kowloon space – the Kai Tak Redevelopment (Outdated airport)- Kai Tak Cruise Terminal and the Kai Tak Sports activities Park. “The Kai Tak Cruise Terminal has the capability to dock 4 massive cruise ships on the similar time. Equally, the Kai Tak Sports activities park has 3 main venues with capability ranging from 50,000 to 5000 pax,” she stated. 4 European soccer groups performed at Kai Tak stadium within the final week of July, and it has additionally hosted massive ticket concert events together with that of Coldplay not too long ago.
The Asia World Expo, which is without doubt one of the largest exhibition venues in Asia, can be within the strategy of including Enviornment 2 which could have 20,000 capability in comparison with Enviornment 1 which has 12,000 capability, she stated. Even the growth of the Hong Kong airport – the opening of the Terminal 2 and addition of a 3rd runway – will take the capability to 120 million.
The 11 SKIES, a one in every of its form retail, eating and leisure vacation spot unfold in 350,000 sqm space, a part of the Sky Metropolis improvement, in Lantau island, in strolling distance from the Hong Worldwide passenger terminals is one other mega improvement which is poised to redefine the Hong Kong discovery and expertise for guests, she added.
“Hong Kong’s customer experiences have 5 sturdy pillars – Wellbeing, neighbourhood, nightlife, artwork and tradition and Hong Kong signature. A whole lot of itineraries might be designed round these pillars. We have now a specialised workforce in HKTB which helps the MICE operators design customised itineraries” she knowledgeable.
She stated that there’s an built-in technique to create each pull and push for Hong Kong as a most popular vacation spot for company conferences and incentives to journey in India. As a part of this technique, the tourism board participates in all of the related journey exhibits in India and manage periodical highway exhibits and different networking occasions to coach the commerce companions in regards to the newest developments in Hong Kong. That is adopted up with profitable incentives and rewards to push the commerce to advertise Hong Kong, she stated. She spoke in regards to the Hong Kong Playbook programme in addition to the Hong Kong Rewards programme which supply direct incentives to tour operators.
