Michael Lim, Director Canada, Central & South America, HKTB; Gloria Lo, Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office & Andrew Yui,
Hong Kong Trade Development Council
Reps from HKG's Tourism Board,
Economic & Trade Office & Trade Development Council raise a glass in honour of the Year of the Snake
Tour East's Annie Tsu & HKTB's
Michael Lim
Goway's Bronwyn Hodge is joined by
Kayla Shubert, Tourism Thailand
Hong Kong Tourism Board recently held a cocktail event to wish us all a happy and prosperous year of the snake, and to give an update on the many business opportunities and new developments in Hong Kong for the upcoming year.
The evening was well attended by the HKTB’s tourism partners and their team of Michael Lim, director - Canada, Central & South America and Karisa Lui, the Assistant Marketing Manager.
While guests sipped wine and beer and enjoyed treats such as Peking duck rolls, we learned that although Canadian visitors to Hong Kong were slightly down in 2012 (by 4%) the larger picture was positive, with an increase of 16% overall. Following the presentations and a lucky draw, we were plied with even more delicious treats: dim sum favourites including har gow, bbq pork buns, chicken dumplings and egg rolls.
Once the food was out and the presentation done, it was time for everyone to relax and enjoy. And time for me to ask some questions about those little red and gold coloured envelopes I see all over Chinatown. I know they’re lucky and they often contain money, but I wanted to know if they were on par with the “lucky gold coins” my Scottish Gran used to put in our stockings- or if the stakes were higher.
As it turns out, my suspicions were right. I should have been asking Gran for little red envelopes instead of stockings all along. Some of those envelopes do contain much grander things. Apparently Michael has been given real gold coins in his envelope before, and when he whispered back what his daughter’s recently contained, I nearly dropped my pork bun.
With fabulous traditions like these, cosmopolitan Hong Kong is lucky any time of the year, but right now it’s time to celebrate the Year of The Snake – which is very lucky indeed.
Agents interested in getting in on the luck and increasing their sales to Hong Kong should check out partnernet.hktb.com for a specialist program, upcoming trade shows, support materials and all sorts of useful links.
