The Hindu Business Line : Hong Kong Tourism Board launches initiative to attract events

Hong Kong, Nov. 14 Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) has established ‘Meetings and Exhibitions Hong Kong’ (MEHK) to raise the profile of Meetings, Incentive Travel, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) sector of Hong Kong, This initiative is aimed at giving a focused global push to attract MICE events to Hong Kong amid the global economic slowdown and financial turmoil in the developed markets

Headquartered in Hong Kong, MEHK is tasked with providing one-stop support for MICE event organisers. It would continue to build Hong Kong’s MICE brand and take efforts to maintain lead over regional rivals, according to HKTB.

“Despite the volatile economic environment, we have rolled out the new initiative of MEHK, This is because we believe this is the right time we must ramp up our effort to increase our market share in MICE,” Mr James Tien, HKTB’s Chairman, said at the launch function of MEHK here on Thursday.

Tough competition

He also said that targeted promotions would be launched in the high-potential and strategic markets of China, India, Japan, Korea, US and the UK to build awareness. “This would lessen the impact of the downturn and enable us to have a head start when there is recovery,” Mr Tien said.

Mr Tien said HKTB would work closely with trade partners to “keep the business in Hong Kong” and strengthen its image as a preferred MICE destination. He noted that competition was getting tougher than ever and that competitors were setting up dedicated MICE bureaus and rolling out incentive schemes to entice events.

In the 2008-09 budget, the Hong Kong Government had earmarked an additional $150 million for HKTB to strengthen its MICE promotion over the next five years. The company has now made use of this additional funding to redouble the marketing effort on MICE and established the MEHK office.

Later, Mr Anthony Lau, Executive Director, HKTB, told a group of visiting journalists that India was an important and strategic market for HKTB and that more marketing activities were on the cards for this market. “We will be investing more in India next year than the level invested this year,” Mr Lau said. He however declined to put a number on the planned investments for next year.

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