Chinese New Years Celebrations Continue

With Martha Chapman

According to my booklet on the Chinese Fortune Calendar, people born in a Rooster year – like this year – are deep thinkers and hard workers, busy and devoted to their work.

You could certainly say that about all of the employees of the Hong Kong Tourism Board here in Canada. And all that hard work is certainly paying off.

At an event last week to help the ongoing Chinese New Year’s celebrations, Michael Lim, director/Canada, Central & South America for the tourism board and his team welcomed a wide-ranging group from both the media and the business community.

“Last year, Hong Kong recorded over 56 million visitors,” he told the appreciative crowd. “This included over 369,000 Canadians, an increase of 3 per cent.”

And to keep that momentum going, the Tourism Board has launched a new global ad campaign, themed Best of All It’s in Hong Kong. Inspiring consumers to see Hong Kong like a local, the campaign emphasizes Hong Kong’s diversity, trendiness and even its great outdoors. Themes within the campaign are Tasting the Town, |Journeys of Discovery, |Hipster Stuff and family time. 

Open Jaw recently published a Headliner issue titled “This Year, Make It Hong Kong!” which provides a great overview of the opportunities to sell Hong Kong to clients interested in experiencing a vibrant new destination.

Certainly “Asia’s world city” never sleeps – or stops developing. This year alone almost 30 hotels are being added (bringing the total to almost 300); two extensions of the MTR (the local public subway) have opened, and restaurants number over 13,000.

Not surprisingly, the vast majority of Canadians visit HKG in combination with at least one other destination, usually mainland China, Taiwan or Thailand.

And to remind us of the many charms of Hong Kong culture, some miniature dancers from the Starlet Cantonese Opera performed for us – all very happy to be celebrating the year of the Rooster.