HK launches tourism campaign

HK launches tourism campaign

JAKARTA (JP): Hong Kong is launching a series of tourism "road
shows" around Southeast Asia to encourage visitors to the
territory.

"People in the region are getting wealthier. They are
traveling further, to Europe, America or other far destinations
in spending their holidays," the marketing director of the Hong
Kong Tourist Association (HKTA), Kenneth W. Hayden Sadler, said
here yesterday.

He said that people who like to travel are getting wealthier
and that Hong Kong's main rivals in attracting foreign visitors
are the long-haul destinations as well as Thailand, Singapore and
Malaysia.

Sadler was in town to hold a road show, which included a
travel mart and seminar at the Shangri-La Hotel where a number of
executives representing hotels, travel agents and other tourism-
related businesses from Hong Kong participated.

"We are considering Indonesia as one of our potential markets
in addition to other Southeast Asian nations," he said, adding
that a similar push will be made in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur,
Manila and Bangkok until Sept. 2

Hong Kong saw 7.4 million foreign visitors last year and
received HK64 billion (US$8 billion) in foreign exchange.

In addition to China, which provided 1.9 million visitors,
Hong Kong's five major markets in 1994 included Taiwan (providing
1.66 million visitors), Japan (1.44 million), Southeast Asia
(1.19 million, including 170,000 from Indonesia), western Europe
(1.12 million) and North America (961,329).

Meanwhile, HKTA's senior manager, Susan Tang-Loh, said that
the number of Indonesian tourists visiting Hong Kong has
increased significantly.

"By June this year, there were 22,238 Indonesian visiting Hong
Kong, 2.8 percent higher than 22,019 in the first six months of
last year," she said.

"Young female Indonesians visiting Hong Kong spend 50 percent
of their money shopping," she said.

Sadler said that HKTA spent last year some HK$150 million ($19
million) for tourism promotion aboard, while the government
allocated a budget of HK$350 million ($45 million).

"We spent some HK$70 million ($9 million) for our new
marketing theme and some $250,000 for promotion in Indonesia," he
said. (icn)