2016 Hong Kong Tourism Overview Came to a Successful Conclusion

The 2016 Hong Kong Tourism Overview, organised by HKTB to highlight our direction and work plan on promoting the Hong Kong tourism industry, has come to a successful conclusion. Held on 31 March at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, the one-day event was attended by over 800 tourism industry leaders and travel trade partners, as well as about 200 students from various local institutes.

As the tourism industry remains resilient amid all the challenges, the theme of the year is “We Make the Difference”, representing the achievement we can make by working closely with our trade partners. The event kicked off with a welcome speech by Dr Peter Lam, the Chairman of HKTB, followed by a keynote speech by Commissioner for Tourism, Miss Cathy Chu. Mr Anthony Lau, the Executive Director of HKTB, then presented the 2015 Business Review.

This year, insightful perspectives were again shared in the most anticipated Industry Forum. It was moderated by Mr Bernard Lo, Anchor of CNBC International. Industry leaders were invited to talk about the experience visitors are now looking for and trending promotion tools in travel business: Professor Song Haiyan, Chair Professor of Tourism and Associate Dean, School of Hotel and Tourism Management of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Mr Tom Tobin, Group Country Manager, Northeast Asia of Visa Hong Kong Limited; Mr Dominic Allon, Managing Director of Google Hong Kong; and Mr Grant Colquhoun, Senior Director of Account Management APAC, TripAdvisor.

In addition, the event featured HKTB’s key strategies for the new financial year, presented by Mr Anthony Lau. During the afternoon sessions, Directors from our Worldwide Offices reported the trend and challenges in their respective markets, providing our trade partners with useful information to plan and explore potential business opportunities.