Hong Kong is expecting to double the number of Indian travellers this year with a line-up of festivals and events to boost tourism, a top executive of HK Tourism Board has said.
Last year, 2,08,000 Indians travelled to Hong Kong.
"We want to double this number this year and have many festivals and events lined up to boost tourism this year. In the first half of 2024, Hong Kong welcomed 1,81,000 visitors from India, which is 89 per cent of the pre-Covid time," Hong Kong Tourism Board Director, South Asia and Middle East, Puneet Kumar told PTI.
Looking at this growth in momentum, the HK Tourism Board is hoping to cross the pre-Covid (2018) level of tourist arrivals this year, he added.
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Hong Kong Tourism Board takes 2018 as the benchmark for pre-Covid times as in 2019, the tourism industry almost came to a standstill with cancellation of hundreds of flights as the country saw protests against the Hong Kong government's introduction of a bill to amend the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance with regard to extradition.
In 2018, about 4 lakh Indians and overall 330 lakh international travellers visited the country.
Hong Kong welcomed 340 lakh international visitors in 2023, and overall 210 lakh travellers visited the country between January-June this year.
Kumar further highlighted that the HK Tourism Board is promoting the country as an all-year round destination with mega events and festivals. The destination presents ease of travel with great connectivity between Hong Kong and all metro cities in India and it being a visa-free destination.
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"Hong Kong is visa-free for Indian travellers, who require only a pre-arrival registration on the Hong Kong immigration website, which takes about 10 minutes," Kumar said.
In India, Hong Kong is mainly targeting Gen Zs and the Millennials (anyone born between 1981 to 2012), who are driving the robust growth in the tourism industry of the country.
"Our focus is to drive frequent travel and repeat travel. Therefore, we are promoting Hong Kong as the event capital of Asia. This age group is very interested in attending events like concerts and festivals and that means we want to give them reasons to travel frequently to Hong Kong," he added.
The Hong Kong Tourism Board is mainly looking at the leisure and the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) segment.
"In the leisure segment we are mainly targeting family and the cruise travellers. In the business travel segment there is MICE. In fact, India is among the top five markets for incentive group travel for Hong Kong," he stated.
He said Indians are among the top five spenders in Hong Kong with an average spending of HKD (Hong Kong Dollar) 9.139 per person.
Even the length of stay of Indian travellers has gone up to an average of 4.5 days from 3 days in 2018, Kumar added.
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