ENG-1985 — Page 271

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IMMIGRATION AND TOURISM

Marketing strategies are geared towards higher-yield markets, with an emphasis on increasing length of stay and at encouraging visitors to return. The estimated 3.4 million visitors in 1985 came primarily from the major regional markets of Southeast Asia (20.5 per cent), the United States and Canada (21.7 per cent), Japan (18.5 per cent), Western Europe (14.5 per cent), and Australia and New Zealand (8.7 per cent). Some 50 per cent were repeat visitors.

The HKTA carries out extensive advertising on its own and also co-operative advertising promotions in conjunction with the different sectors of the travel industry such as airlines, wholesaling agents and hotels. Much promotional work is done through familiarisation visits by both travel agents and overseas media representatives. A total of 3 250 visiting travel trade personnel and 900 members of the overseas media were briefed in Hong Kong in 1985 on the developments concerning the industry and the tourism product. Visits made in conjunction with the HKTA were designed to coincide with activities and interests which supported marketing themes. An example of this occurred in June, with groups arriving at the time of the Dragon Boat Festival, and the International Dragon Boat races held then, an event befitting 'a destination for all seasons'.

During the year, the HKTA continued to offer tours aimed at widening Hong Kong's range of appeal. These include a 'Sports and Recreation Tour' which offered a day at a private golf and country club; a 'Come Horseracing Tour', enabling visitors to enjoy the racing tracks of Hong Kong; and 'The Land Between Tour', through the New Territories to show the rural side of the territory. Nearly half of all visitors take at least one organised tour, and 'The Land Between Tour' recorded its 20 000th participant in April, less than three years since its inception. A 'Tour Co-ordinator of the Year' Award was organised in 1985. This involved responses from more than 7 000 visitors, who nominated over a period of three months 500 individual tour co-ordinators for the award. The association also continued to promote the 'Effective Selling Skills Certificate' programme, which is a course for those in the retail trade wishing to optimise, through courteous service to the tourist, their retail opportunities.

In 1985, Hong Kong could offer around 18 000 hotel rooms and the HKTA continued to employ a Hotel Reservations Monitor System, introduced in 1984, to assist the travel trade overseas in making advance reservations. In another development, the HKTA began, in October, a six-month scheme to encourage visitors to patronise retail shops operated by its members.