IMMIGRATION AND TOURISM
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An Economic Tourism Committee was set up to co-ordinate the efforts of government departments and the Tourist Association in promoting tourism and expanding Hong Kong's tourist facilities.
Owing to the large increase in visitors some difficulty was experi- enced in finding sufficient hotel rooms at certain periods of the year. However the Hong Kong Hotel with 800 rooms was opened and this brought the total available rooms to 7,743. More hotels are being built and planned and the Tourist Association, which has been actively promoting further hotel development, has now initiated a comprehensive accommodation research study to provide informa- tion to potential developers.
Abroad, the association expanded further its activities based on its network of overseas offices. The Japanese office was expanded during 1969 and the volume of work handled by the United States offices continued to increase.
In Europe a second successful 100-day mobile exhibition covered Scandinavia, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and the UK.
Australia continues to be a productive market for visitors to Hong Kong. The total number last year was 41,466.
The HKTA office in Canada was extremely busy in 1969 with the great Canadian interest being shown in Asia because of Expo '70 in Osaka.
The Head Office of the association during 1969 produced two new promotional films, one in Japanese for television usage and a 20-minute film with English commentary. The association also hosted a series of familiarisation visits by European travel agents; gave seminars for many visiting travel agent groups; participated in the preparatory work for the tourist section of the Hong Kong Pavilion for Expo '70; continued its visitor survey for the fourth year; expanded its successful student ambassador scheme to include more than 400 students; agreed to revise and update the Convention and Exhibition viability study originally undertaken in 1965 and organised many other promotional activities.
Hong Kong in 1969 was selected as the site of the third World Congress of the Universal Federation of Travel Agents' Associations. Host and organiser of the week-long congress was the Hong Kong
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