ENG-1974 — Page 176

TOURISM AND IMMIGRATION

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A slight decline in hotel occupancy during the year from 77 per cent in 1973 to about 72 per cent reflected the increase in the number of hotel rooms from 11,432 to 13,241 with the opening of the Sheraton Hong Kong Hotel and the Hotel Plaza. Still under construction was the Holiday Inn, due to open in early 1975. A number of other hotel projects in the pipeline will reach completion in 1976–7.

The active promotion by the Hong Kong Tourist Association of a longer stay in Hong Kong appears to have made some impact with the average length increasing slightly from 3.5 nights in 1973 to 3.6 nights in 1974. During the year the HKTA also developed a series of tour planning guides for overseas markets to back up the longer stay programme with emphasis on some new or different tours, plus a host of do-it-yourself activities.

Two of the most popular tours developed during the year take visitors to the islands of Lantau, Cheung Chau and Peng Chau, and the association is also actively engaged in developing more new tours encompassing other areas in the New Territories.

During the year the Hong Kong Tourist Association, in conjunction with the travel industry as a whole and local kaifong associations, lent its support to a lantern festival organised in Victoria Park at mid-autumn festival. It is hoped that this will develop into a regular tourist attraction.

As the Hong Kong Convention Centre in the World Trade Centre neared com- pletion, scheduled for mid-1975, a number of conventions, conferences and exhibition bookings were made for its facilities. At the same time the Hong Kong Tourist As- sociation was making preparations for the establishment of a convention department to further develop Hong Kong's potential as a convention destination.

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The second Arts Festival held in February 1974 continued to enrich and promote Hong Kong's cultural image abroad and generated numerous other cultural activities in Hong Kong during the year. The support for the 1975 Arts Festival from overseas was most encouraging.

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The Hong Kong Tourist Association launched a courtesy programme during the year with emphasis on education and incentives to improve standards and atti- tudes among employees in the industry. For the educational phase of the programme a film was produced which imparts the courtesy message in a humorous way to employees in the industry. This film has already been shown to thousands of tourist industry employees. In association with its retail trade members the HKTA also organised a series of sales training courses at the Kwun Tong Vocational Training Centre. A beginner's course for guides was also held at the centre during the autumn, in conjunction with the Hong Kong Association of Travel Agents.

Despite the impact worldwide of tightening money supply visitors' spending power still increased in current terms. Per capita expenditure in 1974 was estimated at $1,900 compared with $1,750 in 1973. The overall earnings from the tourist industry during 1974 was estimated at $2,850 million, an increase over 1973 of nine per cent.