Hong Kong's image-branding

By Grace Emilia

HONG KONG (JP): "Buy this Hong Kong flag pin Madam, only HK$4!" offered a street hawker on bustling Nathan Road.

I stopped walking when the hawker continued in a friendly tone, "the red background color represents mainland China and the flowers on it represent Hong Kong. Hong Kong is part of China. Buy this new China."

I bought the pin. Not for the pin itself, but because of the hawker's friendliness and explanation.

Before visiting Hong Kong, friends had warned me of the rudeness of Hong Kong's people. An impression heightened by Hong Kong action movies keen on depicting sadistic mafia scenes, a part of my brain had registered this Hong Kong stereotype.

It, therefore, came as quite a surprise to see some people who were actually very friendly. It seems Hong Kong Tourist Association's "Be a Good Host" campaign in the past two years has borne results.

"This unfriendly image stems from the fact that Hong Kong is small and competition is high so the people are quite tense," says Michael Currie, travel editor of South China Morning Post. Meanwhile Ada Tang from Kowloon-based TVB Publication reasons that the trait is caused by lack of education. This trait, he explained, was more predominant in those born in mainland China who moved to Hong Kong during the 40s.

Given the not so favorable cultural image, plus its limited natural resources, compared to Indonesia, it is amazing that this city with a population of 6.4 million received over 13 million visitors in 2000 generating some HK$76.4 billion (US$ 9.7 billion) or about 5 percent of Hong Kong's GDP.

"Tourism spending makes tourism one of the biggest contributors to the Hong Kong economy." says Selina Chow, the chairman of Hong Kong Tourism Board.

The World Tourism Organization is even projecting that this special administrative region (SAR) will receive 22.5 million arrivals a year by 2010 and 56 million by 2020. Within Asia, only mainland China receives more visitors each year, making Hong Kong Asia's single most popular destination.

How is this possible?

Continuous worldwide promotion and branding of Hong Kong as the "City of Life" since 1998 is one answer, combined with strong support from the government to make Hong Kong SAR a major tourism destination.

This branding effort has helped Hong Kong to secure two PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association) Gold Awards for best International Marketing Program (over US$5 million) and best web site (www.DiscoverHongKong.com) in the latest PATA Conference in Kuala Lumpur ended on April 12.

In 1995, the HK Tourism Board's visitor and tourism study recommended that HK should place more emphasis on educational, heritage, culture and participatory travel experience. The latest international market research studies also showed that 57 percent of respondents in the U.S. cited "experiencing cultures new and interesting to you" as a key factor in deciding on a destination. Forty percent of respondents in the United Kingdom expressed a desire for different kinds of experiences to "refresh the spirit"; whilst nearly 30 percent of Japanese respondents endorsed Chinese festive arts and cultural activities.

Based on this finding, Hong Kong Tourism Board, formerly the Hong Kong Tourist Association, launched a special two-year community-wide project entitled "City of Life: Hong Kong is it!"

This US$30.8 million project started on April 1 this year when the Chief Executive of Hong Kong SAR Tung Chee-hwa launched it with a spectacular lighting and pyrotechnic display on Hong Kong's harbor front.

"Our aim is to build and expand Hong Kong's established strengths in shopping, dining, events and entertainment by adding depth to the tourist experience with activity-based involvement. At the same time, we want to add breadth to the Hong Kong product geographically, by expanding the profile of attraction and activities beyond well-known areas" adds Clara Chong, newly appointed executive director of Hong Kong Tourism Board.

"Hong Kong's uniqueness is contained in one magic word: Contrast!" Chong continues. We intend to tell the world that Hong Kong as a destination is "life" in all its glorious shapes and forms, a living fusion of East and West, old and new, traditional and modern."

A good promotion indeed. Can Indonesia learn from this?