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TRAVEL AND TOURISM
Rome. There is also an agreement with Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways whereby the airline acts as the HKTA's information agent in 44 cities worldwide.
During the year, the HKTA continued to promote Hong Kong as the 'Celebration for all Seasons' travel destination. The 'Hong Kong Food Festival - The World on a Plate' was organised from August 16 to September 16 to promote Hong Kong as the 'Culinary Heart of Asia'. This event was heavily promoted overseas with emphasis on Hong Kong's dining, wining and entertainment opportunities. This year, one of the highlights was "The World of Flavours' - an international food bazaar at the Tai Pak Floating Restaurant in Aberdeen, which featured a range of booths where both visitors and residents could sample cuisine from all over the world. Some 60 000 people attended this bazaar.
Another feature was the 'Gourmet Dining Scheme', which enabled visitors to sample the top award-winning dishes in the 1986 Hong Kong Food Festival Culinary Awards. In addition, a 'Food Festival Bonus Scheme', involving 180 top food and beverage outlets in Hong Kong, offered visitors special bonuses during the food festival month. Visitors were also able to enjoy the popular, self-guided 'Yum Sing - Night on the Town' tour, which had been created for the first festival in the previous year as an easy way to experience Hong Kong's sophisticated nightlife.
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There has been steady growth in the number of international conferences and exhibitions held in Hong Kong, rising from 15 in 1976 to 480 in 1987.
The association's Convention and Incentive Travel Bureau stepped up the promotion of Hong Kong as the ideal conference site in Asia and the marketing of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre which is due to open in 1988. The centre, located on the Wan Chai waterfront, will be among the most versatile and best-equipped meeting and exhibition complexes in the region, providing 18 000 square metres of exhibition space and an area for meetings of up to 8 000 people in one seating.
The HKTA's marketing strategies are designed to attract higher-yield visitors, with emphasis on increasing the amount spent in Hong Kong and encouraging visitors to return. Some 4.4 million visitors came to Hong Kong in 1987, an increase of 20 per cent over the previous year's. They came primarily from Japan (23 per cent), the United States and Canada (21 per cent), Southeast Asia (17 per cent), Western Europe (16 per cent) and Australia and New Zealand (7 per cent).
The HKTA places emphasis on co-operative advertising overseas in conjunction with airlines, wholesaling tour operators and hotels. Special seasonal campaigns for summer and winter are held with Hong Kong hotels in various overseas markets. Promotional visits are arranged for overseas travel agents and media representatives to Hong Kong to experience the tourism product. During the year, 4 149 agents and 1 040 media representatives were hosted in Hong Kong and briefed on new and future tourism developments. Such visits are usually arranged to coincide with specific events. For example, during the 1987 Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival International Races, 50 members of the overseas press were hosted by the HKTA. This was the 12th year of the races, which were inaugurated by the associa- tion. A total of 20 overseas and 99 local teams took part, and the 'Row for Charity' races, held at the same time, raised $780,000 for the Community Chest.
The HKTA continued to organise three special tours aimed at increasing Hong Kong's appeal to visitors. These were the 'Come Horseracing' tour, which enables visitors to attend races at Hong Kong's two courses; 'The Land Between Tour', which gives an insight into the rural areas of the New Territories, and the 'Sports and Recreation Tour', which permits visitors the use of facilities at a private golf and country club. Nearly half of all visitors to Hong Kong take at least one organised tour in the territory.