Southeast Asian Muslim Trade Visits Hong Kong & Praises the Upgrading of Muslim Tourism in the City HKTB Continues to Encourage Local Trade Partners to Enhance Muslim-Friendly Experiences with More Options Halal Souvenirs with Local Tastes, Muslim-Friendly Eateries and Hotels On the Rise
| 게시일: | 03 Mar 2025 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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To promote Hong Kong as a Muslim-friendly tourism destination, the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) hosted a familiarisation trip for Muslim travel trade representatives from the Southeast Asian visitor source markets. More than 20 representatives of the tourism industry from Southeast Asia experienced the latest Muslim-friendly travel facilities and tourism products. The trade praised that Muslim tourism in Hong Kong has been elevated to a new level, which is conductive to the organization of future tours to Hong Kong. The HKTB also continues to encourage more local trade partners to enhance their Muslim-friendly facilities, apply for related accreditations and certifications, and introduce Halal-certified food products, including newly launched local edible souvenirs, so as to provide Muslim travellers with a better and more diversified experience when visiting Hong Kong, and to attract them to travel to the city.
Ms Becky Ip, HKTB’s Deputy Executive Director, says, “Since the beginning of 2024, HKTB has adopted a diversified approach to establish Hong Kong as a Muslim-friendly tourism environment through three major directions – accreditation, education and promotion, which has received tremendous support from stakeholders and tourism-related sectors. HKTB is glad to see that more of our local trade partners are now actively capturing the opportunities arising from the Muslim market segment, such as applying for Muslim-friendly accreditation and Halal-certification, and introducing edible souvenirs that are halal-certified. These initiatives further enrich Muslim visitors’ experience and options for catering, accommodation, and shopping when they are visiting Hong Kong. HKTB is also producing a series of new training materials for frontline tourism and service practitioners to deepen their understanding towards Muslim culture and how they can provide hospitality to Muslim travellers. In the future, we will also step up promotions of Hong Kong’s tourism in Muslim visitor source markets.”
20+ Southeast Asian Muslim Trade Representatives Unlock HK’s Authentic Tastes and MuslimFriendly Tourism Facilities in Person HKTB invited 22 Muslim travel trade representatives from Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia to visit Hong Kong for 4 days and 3 nights from 17 to 20 February to experience Hong Kong’s Muslim-friendly tourism facilities and offerings in person. They visited various hotels that has received Muslim accreditations by international Muslim tourism certifier “CrescentRating”, to check out their accommodation facilities and catering services. They have also tried authentic quality Chinese cuisines with Halal- certifications, including crab roe noodles, Hong Kong-made handmade cookies and Hong Kong-style dim sum, enjoying the authentic Hong Kong experience on tastebuds.
The delegation also visited the Muslim-friendly facilities and exciting experiences in theme parks – meeting with giant pandas “An An” and “Ke Ke” in Ocean Park Hong Kong, visiting the World of Frozen and watching the multimedia pyrotechnic show in Hong Kong Disneyland, exploring Old Town Central with Hong Kong history and local heritage, taking a cable car ride at Ngong Ping 360 to the Ngong Ping market, navigating the Lantau Island, and discovering the unique culinary culture of Tai O, which is dubbed the Venice of the East, in a salted egg yolk preservation workshop. For more highlights of the familiarisation trip, please refer to [Appendix I].
Must-Buy Souvenir for Muslims: Homegrown Cookie Brands Roll Out Halal Cookies with Panda Motifs or Local Flavours Many visitors to Hong Kong like to bring home souvenirs for their friends, and Halal-certified bakery products are the best choice for Muslim travelers. These include exquisitely handmade cookies made from Chinese ingredients, cute animal-shaped cookies made by well-known local brands, and palmiers that have long been tourists’ favourite. The local bakery brand PIN Cookies now offers a variety of Hong Kong-style cookies and baked goods; the classic palmiers of Fine Foods Shop from The Royal Garden also received their Halal-certification, so that Muslim travellers can now enjoy them with peace of mind. Riding on the recent giant panda frenzy, Kee Wah Bakery, a bakery with roots in Hong Kong for more than 86 years, is serving Halal-certified cookies in the shape of giant pandas, as well as other cuddly animals such koalas and penguins, from April onwards. Together with Imperial Patisserie, there are four brands in the city supplying Halal-certified bakery products, providing more choices of souvenirs for Muslim travellers.
More eateries including Chinese restaurants and Hong Kong-style noodle shops in tourism hotspots certified as Muslim-friendly Last year, HKTB has commissioned the internationally recognised halal travel promotion company “CrescentRating” to certify local hotels, attractions and MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) venues based on Muslim requirements. For restaurants, HKTB works with local halal certification authority, the Incorporated Trustees of the Islamic Community Fund of Hong Kong (Board of Trustees, BOT) to promote the existing accreditations in the city and encourages F&B establishments to apply for certification. So far there are 53 hotels, 5 attractions and MICE venues have successfully applied for and obtained accreditation from “CrescentRating” and more than 140 restaurants have received Halal-certification.
Following the success of Chinesology in Central, the first high-end Chinese restaurant to have received a Halal-friendly restaurant certification in Hong Kong last year, Cuisine Cuisine, another upscale modern Chinese eatery in Tsim Sha Tsui is also certified as Halal-friendly restaurant. With a selection of over 15 exquisite Halal dishes designed by Chef Edwin Tang, Chinese Executive Chef of Cuisine Cuisine, the restaurant enriches Muslim traveller’s culinary experience with Chinese flavours. In addition, a contemporary Hong Kong-style restaurant Lady 13 Kitchen also joined the list of Halalfriendly restaurants, serving crab roe noodles, vegetarian chicken noodles, and various skewers for Muslim foodies.
Furthermore, as the Ramadan which lasts for about a month has already begun, Kowloon ShangriLa and Dorsett Tsuen Wan Hong Kong have launched special Ramadan Buffets to accommodate the dietary needs and arrangements of Muslim travellers during the period.
HKTB to roll out training materials to enhance frontline practitioners’ understanding and step up promotions of Hong Kong tourism in Middle Eastern markets To enhance frontline tourism practitioners’ ability in welcoming Muslim travellers, HKTB is developing a series of new training materials to familiarise tourism practitioners with the culture and lifestyle of the Muslims, such as simple greetings, customs, dietary requirements, attire to daily life situations, with infographics and videos, with a view to propagate the development of the growing Muslim market segment.
At the same time, HKTB will continue to actively promote Hong Kong Tourism in various Muslim markets, and will partner with major media organisations and online travel agents in the Middle East to showcase Hong Kong’s new tourism activities and experiences, and jointly promote Hong Kong as an ideal travel destination for the Middle East markets.
HKTB’s dedicated webpage to Muslim visitors on DiscoverHongKong: https://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/explore/muslim-travel.html |
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