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)