Events & Promotions

Our Hong Kong Neighbourhoods campaign, launched in 2017/18, was met with remarkable enthusiasm from visitors and the travel trade. Following “Old Town Central”, we presented “Sham Shui Po” in 2018/19 to introduce visitors to a different world.

Sham Shui Po is famous for many things – local eats, street markets, Hollywood movie scenes, to name just a few. To help visitors navigate this interesting neighbourhood, we developed a guide offering a curation of walking routes and experiences recommended by local insiders such as historian Professor Joseph Ting. In addition, themed decorations and QR codes linking to maps and information were put in place across the district for visitors to discover the charm of this unique district to the fullest.

On a global scale, integrated promotions covering trade collaboration, public relations campaigns and digital and social media promotions were launched in different source markets to drive awareness.

Chinese New Year is celebrated with exceptional flair in Hong Kong. Boisterous flower markets, visits to temples, a phenomenal fireworks display, auspicious horse races, striking decorations donned by shopping malls, and of course, the unmissable International Chinese New Year Night Parade, come together to create an eye-opening cultural experience for visitors.

International Chinese New Year Night Parade

The International Chinese New Year Night Parade has been an integral part of Chinese New Year celebrations in Hong Kong for over 20 years. On the first day of the Year of the Pig, we organised the evening spectacle under the theme “Best Fortune. World Party”. Over 155,000 spectators, over half of whom were visitors, gathered at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Piazza and poured into the roads in Tsim Sha Tsui to watch the procession of 34 floats and performing troupes hailing from over 11 countries and regions. The line-up of performers was star-studded, with “America’s Got Talent” semi-finalist Junior New System from the Philippines, Guinness world record holder Face Team Acrobatic Korfball from Hungary, social media favourite Hiplet Ballerinas from the US, and multi-award-winning acrobatic troupe The Freaks Acrobatic Show from Austria.

More than 160 reporters from 48 media organisations around the world attended the event, which was also broadcast live by satellite and fibre transmission on global television networks, major newswires and international cruise liners to share the festivities with people worldwide.

Hong Kong Arts Month 2019 blossomed like flowers in springtime. Not only did the top international events, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Art Central Hong Kong and Art Basel Hong Kong, make a glorious return, but the city also saw numerous new cultural hotspots springing up – Tai Kwun, a new art hub transformed from the historical Central Police Station; Xiqu Centre, a shrine for the appreciation of Cantonese and Chinese opera; M+ Pavilion, a new prime venue for exhibitions and events, The Mills, a contemporary art space converted from a textile factory; and H Queen’s, a vertical art space that houses non-traditional venues for exhibitions.

Along with these, we promoted five urban art and creative projects – Design District Hong Kong, HK Urban Canvas, Draw HK, ARTLANE, and HKwalls Street Art Festival – that brought art into the community. We also mixed in events dedicated to other forms of arts, such as Hong Kong Asian-Pop Music Festival and Hong Kong International Film Festival, to showcase the city’s artistic diversity.

Further ushering Hong Kong in the international limelight was the presence of collectors’ favourite Brian Donnelly, or better known as KAWS. His “KAWS: HOLIDAY Hong Kong” exhibition featured an imposing 37-metre-long inflatable afloat in Victoria Harbour, capturing the eyeballs of visitors and locals alike and the flashlights of the global media.

Like the International Chinese New Year Night Parade, the HKTB’s Hong Kong Dragon Boat Carnival has become a fixture in the city’s events calendar. In Victoria Harbour, the 2018 Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Races continued to attract the participation of dragon boat clubs from around the world – or more precisely, over 4,800 paddlers representing 160 teams from 15 countries and regions. The new Greater Bay Area Trophy was introduced to promote exchange in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area, with teams from Hong Kong, Macao and nine other Greater Bay Area cities vying for glory.

Along the waterfront at the Central Harbourfront, visitors and locals alike were fully enjoying themselves, lounging on the new artificial beach, engaged in water games at the “Splash Fun Area”, and serving themselves local and international delicacies at the 14 food trucks lined up for the event.

The e-Sports & Music Festival Hong Kong was staged just the second time in 2018, but its young age did not stop this largest e-sports event in Hong Kong from becoming a sensation. In the three days it was held, the event attracted more than 80,000 participants to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, with the online live broadcast watched by over 42 million across the globe.

The highlight of the three-day event were three international e-sports tournaments, namely “Return of the Legends 2018”, the “ZOTAC CUP MASTERS CS:GO 2018 Grand Finals”, and the “Hong Kong PUBG World Invitational”, which were joined by 110 players from all over the world including Hong Kong.

The venue also included an “Experience Zone”, where the latest e-sports products, games and some of the hottest VR titles were available for trying, and where other exciting programmes including KOL battles, CLP x e-Sports Academy, and performances by local musicians were held on a mini-stage.

The 2018 Hong Kong Cyclothon brought to Hong Kong a top international cycling event – the Hammer Series. It was in fact the very first time the race was held in Asia. A total of 15 professional cycling teams, including 11 UCI World Tour teams, three Pro Continental teams and the Hong Kong National Team, competed in two events on a strenuous 64-kilometre race route.

The home-grown event also presented the professional “Women’s Open Race” and “Men’s Open Race”, as well as the 50km and 30km challenges for amateur cyclists. Over 5,400 cyclists and 64,000 spectators took part in the event, while the live and on-demand feeds had been viewed by more than half a million cycling fans worldwide on digital platforms alone. Global Cycling Network, one of the biggest online media brands in cycling, conducted a live Facebook coverage, which was watched by more than 100,000.

Like a lovely aged wine, the Hong Kong Wine & Dine Festival, in its 10th year, left a memorable taste on the palette and the mind. It was, for one thing, the biggest in the event’s history, housing over 450 booths set up by exhibitors from 33 countries and regions. Then, in celebrating the event’s “10th birthday”, 10 special elements were introduced, including the “10-Michellin-starred Dinner”, “Limited 10th Edition” wine offer, and a gigantic seven-metre-high birthday cake which revolved to music calling for participation in an AR web game promising “Super Time Offers” valued at over HK$1.7 million.

A total of record-breaking 168,000 food lovers made their pilgrimage to the culinary mecca at the Central Harbourfront Event Space and Tamar Park area. In addition to achieving the highest satisfaction score ever at 8.6 out of 10, the event was also selected as one of the “Best Travel Experiences around the World” in 2018 by City Nomads, a leading online lifestyle and travel guide in Asia, and was awarded the “Best Large Event” by Marketing Events Awards Hong Kong 2019.

Hong Kong Great November Feast

The Hong Kong Wine & Dine Festival was only the beginning of an indulgent month-long experience called Hong Kong Great November Feast, when the whole city celebrated Hong Kong’s culinary excellence with food carnivals, wine tours, world-class wine and spirit expos, and special menus and offers. In particular, 16 Michelin-starred restaurants serving a wide selection of cuisines, from traditional Chinese and Cantonese fine-dining to Japanese, French, Italian and contemporary fusion, offered special Michelin-starred menus with an ample variety of exquisite dishes to ensure even the most fastidious epicure was satisfied.

Another HKTB campaign reaching a milestone was Great Outdoors Hong Kong, which celebrated its 10th edition in 2018. To mark the occasion, we partnered with National Geographic (Nat Geo) to publish a guidebook featuring 13 hiking and cycling trails with stunning images and insightful tips by Nat Geo’s photographers and trail experts.

Newly promoted under the campaign were the 18 Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) qualifying races held in Hong Kong. With support from the HKTB, the Hong Kong 100 Ultra Trail Race held in January 2019 was upgraded from a “Pro” to a “Series” race, making it the only Ultra-Trail World Tour (UTWT) race held in Asia under the “Series” category. It attracted around 1,800 runners from 57 countries and territories other than Hong Kong last year.

On a more relaxing note, we launched a series of videos themed “the Sounds of the Great Outdoors in Hong Kong”, in which celebrities including Cantopop star Eason Chan, former Director of the Hong Kong Observatory Lam Chiu Ying, 2015 VIBRAM Hong Kong 100 Women Champion Wyan Chow, musician Hak Gwai and other nature lovers shared their encounters with nature and their favourite sounds. The videos and posts published on the HKTB’s Facebook pages, Twitter and YouTube reached over 16 million people.

In South Korea and Taiwan, we collaborated with our trade partners to introduce a series of tourism products featuring delightful hiking and cycling experiences, so that nature lovers could turn their dream of exploring Hong Kong’s great outdoors into reality.

It is no exaggeration to call Hong Kong a city of lights, especially during the festive winter season. In November 2018, the HKTB joined hands with the Tourism Commission to launch the Hong Kong Pulse Light Festival. Comprising the first-ever “International Light Art Display”, an enhanced version of the light-and-music show “A Symphony of Lights” and a 19-metre-high Christmas Tree in Statue Square, the festival made Hong Kong even brighter and the holiday ambience even cosier.

The International Light Art Display featured 25 creative light installations from Hong Kong and overseas, namely Belgium, France, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore and the US. They were unique in shape and style, with different visual effects in day and night, and some of them were even interactive, transforming the Central Harbourfront into an art theme park. A highlight was the 25-metre-high steel-ribbed Christmas tree that integrated lighting and sound effects and presented a spectacular performance every 20 minutes in the evening. Over one million people visited the event during the almost three months it was held.

Taking place above one of the world’s best-known harbours, surrounded by soaring skyscrapers, Hong Kong New Year Countdown Celebrations is truly one-of-a-kind. No wonder the event attracted more than 350,000 people to the two sides of Victoria Harbour on the last night of 2018, and was picked up by both local and international TV and online media which allowed millions around the world to enjoy the visual treat.

With multi-award-winning fireworks by an Italian fireworks maker introduced in the show for the very first time, we created a dazzling “Celestial Kaleidoscope”, in which fireworks formed rhythmically changing patterns and colours. Pyrotechnics and lighting effects were launched to complement the fireworks; synchronised with a soundtrack, the show was a multi-layer, multi-sensation performance.

In the grand finale, 45 varying firework patterns, including peonies, daisies, cherry blossoms and violets, filled the sky within a minute, turning the night sky above Victoria Harbour into a mesmerising ocean of flowers to conclude the show on a high note.

Hong Kong is undisputedly an events capital. From world-class sports tournaments and races including the 2019 Hong Kong E-Prix, Hong Kong Sevens, Hong Kong Tennis Open, Masters of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Marathon, to arts and cultural happenings like Le French May and the Clockenflap Music & Arts Festival, and traditional festive celebrations such as the Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance and Cheung Chau Bun Festival, we helped promote the events organised by other parties to let travellers know that they would find a huge array of things to do in Hong Kong, anytime they visited the city.