THE Hong Kong Tourism Board recently held its first road show in the Middle East, attracting more than 60 tour operators and travel agents to the presentation at the Radisson SAS Hotel, Deira Dubai Creek.
Seven ground handlers, many international hotel brands and 16 trade partners exhibited, with the main aim of promoting Hong Kong to the Middle East market as a leisure and family destination.
Among the principal attractions represented were Ocean Park Hong Kong, Hong Kong Disneyland and Ngong Ping 360. The HKTB also announced it will launch an Arabic version of its website www.discoverhongkong.com later this month.
“The turn out to this workshop has been fantastic,” said Hong Kong Tourism Board director, Northern Europe, Simon Mills, and gathered the same response at other workshops in the region including in Doha and Bahrain. “The Middle East is an emerging market and a good one for Hong Kong as we have 55 flights a week from this region,” he said. This includes Cathay Pacific’s 24 flights a week out of Dubai and three flights a week to Bahrain.
“Hong Kong is quoted as the third safest city in the world. It is also multicultural offering a unique blend of cultures. The transport system is second to none,” said Mills. He said that more than 180,000 people from the Middle East visited the peninsular in 2008, out of a total of 29 million.