TRAVEL AND TOURISM
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Nearly half of all visitors to Hong Kong take at least one organised tour during their stay. The association's 'Gourmet Dining in Hong Kong' programme was run on an on-going basis for the first time in 1988, enabling visitors and residents alike to sample top culinary award-winning dishes. Visitors were also able to enjoy the HKTA's 'Yum Sing - Night on the Town' tour, created for the first food festival and now available all year-round. In 1988 it was one of the association's most popular tours.
Other tours run by the HKTA in 1988 were the 'Come Horseracing' tour, 'The Land Between' tour of the New Territories and the 'Sports and Recreation' tour, which enables visitors to use the facilities of the Clearwater Bay Country Club.
With the opening of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in November, the HKTA's Convention and Incentive Travel Bureau stepped up its promotion of Hong Kong as the ideal meetings site in Asia. This valuable business has grown from 15 international events recorded in 1976 to 480 in 1988. Incentive travel has also increased from less than 200 groups in 1982 to 460 in 1988.
The HKTA emphasises the importance of training in the service industries to main- tain Hong Kong's high reputation in this area. It continued its 'Effective Selling Skills' certificate programme for staff in the retail trade and also produced a new training film in Cantonese for restaurant staff.
To encourage greater courtesy among staff in the industry, it launched the 'Hong Kong Cares' Courtesy Awards for the Most Outstanding Dining Establishments. Some 10 000 forms were received from visitors and the top 20 establishments chosen. These establishments then nominated a representative to compete for the 'Hong Kong Cares' Courtesy Awards for restaurant service staff.
For the 21st year, the HKTA ran the Student Ambassador Programme whereby 100 students going overseas to study in tertiary institutions take part in a month-long programme comprising lectures, tours and special visits designed to increase their aware- ness of various aspects of Hong Kong and to enable them to talk knowledgeably and accurately about their home.
Nine new hotels opened in 1988, bringing the total number of rooms in Hong Kong to 24 500. This reflects the confidence that the private developer is placing in the future of Hong Kong's tourism industry.