TRAVEL AND TOURISM
organisers of such events as the Jade Solid Gold Best Awards Presentation, the Health and Fortune Expo '97, the Hong Kong Arts Festival, the Salem Open '97 Tennis Championship, and celebration activities for the reunification. More than 9 600 tickets were sold through these arrangements.
Over the year, the HKTA continued to participate in the Pearl River Delta Marketing Organisation, formed between the HKTA, the Macau Government Tourist Office and the Guangdong Provincial Tourism Bureau, with support from the China National Tourism Administration and trade organisations. During the year, the organisation was represented at 10 major travel trade shows overseas and organised nine familiarisation trips to the Pearl River Delta for some 138 travel trade personnel and 32 members of the international media. Some 10 000 brochures and leaflets about the region's attractions were distributed at these shows, as well as through the international travel trade.
A major initiative was the establishment in March 1997 of the HKTA's office in Beijing. It serves as a liaison point with the Mainland travel trade and media, as well as a general enquiry office for members of the public. Its opening was timed to coincide with the large-scale Hong Kong Expo, jointly organised by the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, the HKTA and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. More than 100 000 visitors attended the three-day Expo, which aimed to inform the public about Hong Kong.
In pursuit of raising world-wide awareness of Hong Kong as a cruising hub of Asia, the HKTA attended major cruise trade shows in the USA and Australia two major markets for cruise visitors.
Other major overseas travel trade events attended by the HKTA along with industry partners from Hong Kong, included the World Travel Market in London, the International Tourism Exchange in Berlin, the Asia Travel Mart in Singapore, the Pacific Travel Association Travel Mart and Conference in Beijing, the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, the Japan Congress of International Travel and Travel Trade Show in Tokyo, Borsa Internationale del Turismo in Milan, and Feria International del Turismo in Madrid.
Regular joint promotions with travel industry partners such as hotels and airlines. were also conducted overseas. These included a South-East Asia Roadshow to Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Manila; travel trade missions to Taiwan, Korea and India; and a City Blitz of 36 cities in Japan. Immediately after the reunification, the HKTA also took grass-roots delegations — including representatives from, among others, the Immigration Department and the Police Force to Japan, Taiwan and South-East Asia. These were organised to correct common misconceptions about Hong Kong after reunification with China.
During the reunification period, the HKTA worked closely with the government's Information Services Department to help ensure the international news media representatives in Hong Kong to cover the event received all necessary information. The association also operated a 24-hour, Media Services Booth at the Press and Broadcast Centre in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, which received more than 1 720 enquiries. The association assisted in the organisation of some 28 interviews with leading tourism industry figures.
As part of efforts to combat the mid-year downturn in tourism, and to maintain international awareness of Hong Kong as a tourist destination, the HKTA organised
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