Global
Promotions

The Muslim segment, which accounts for approximately 40% of the total population in Southeast Asia, is a demographic that cannot be ignored. In the year under review, we invested considerably in public relations, consumer marketing and trade engagement to attract Muslim travellers, catering to their special needs and customs, especially in Indonesia and Malaysia markets.

A major awareness campaign was put together with “Have Halal Will Travel”, top Muslim travel portal in the region, with creative contents released year-round to build Hong Kong’s image as a Muslim-friendly destination and engage the Muslim community on social media.

This effort was complemented by a destination video created with Malaysia Airlines, which followed a Muslim influencer on her adventures in Hong Kong’s great outdoors and interesting neighbourhoods, including Sham Shui Po and Old Town Central.

We also proactively engaged the travel trade and media with a mega familiarisation trip in April 2018. A total of 44 Muslim media titles and trade partners from Malaysia and Indonesia were invited to try out Muslim-friendly facilities and cuisines, and visit local mosques and iconic quarters.

Echoing our Sham Shui Po neighbourhood promotion, we organised two large media launches, one in Malaysia and one in Indonesia.

In Malaysia, we hosted a media and trade luncheon which recreated the Sham Shui Po experience with its distinctive food and ambience. Michelle Loo, host of the six-episode “Hong Kong Neighbourhoods Gems” TV series broadcast in the international markets including Malaysia, was invited to talk about her encounters with the residents of Sham Shui Po, with follow-up media interviews to sustain the publicity for the Hong Kong Neighbourhoods campaign.

Our partner in Indonesia was Trans TV reality show “Mission X”, which had episodes filmed in Hong Kong and aired between August 2018 and January 2019. The show was hosted by numerous celebrities including Indonesia Idol finalist Brisia Jodie. Riding on the show, we organised a media event to promote Sham Shui Po and invited the show’s celebrities to share their experience in Hong Kong and played games with over 120 media and trade guests.

The stories of humble shops and stalls in Sham Shui Po, its local street food and buildings full of rich history generated extensive coverage in major media titles in Southeast Asian markets, including ANC Channel’s “Cityscape”, Astro’s “Ria Fantasy Escape”, China Press, CNN Philippines Life, Khao Sod and The Straits Times.

Sports tourism is particularly popular in mature markets like Singapore and Thailand. During the year, we collaborated with specialised travel agents and other partners with a strong focus on sports-related tourism products including the mega event Hong Kong Cyclothon.

Our goal was not simply to raise awareness of Hong Kong as a hot destination for sports, but to encourage sports lovers to actually take part in Hong Kong Cyclothon. In Singapore, therefore, we reserved some spots in the event for members of online sporting platform RunSociety, and arranged for their writers to take part in the race and review an itinerary featuring it. Meanwhile, we launched the first-ever cycle-cruise package with Dream Cruises, allowing cruisers to take part in the Hong Kong Cyclothon; and with Travelwander, a travel agent specialising in outdoor activities, we custom-made travel packages for visitors to participate in the major sporting event.

In Thailand, we had an exclusive cooperation with sports travel agency Boxmatch Travel to offer a Cyclothon package. And two Thai cycling KOLs were invited to join the race for another year and share their experience on social media.

Capitalising on the global trend of e-commerce, we collaborated with leading online travel agent Traveloka to promote regional cooperation in the Philippines and Indonesia, and create an urge to visit Hong Kong with inspiring contents and a basketful of offers for air tickets, attractions and accommodations. We also partnered up with travel meta search engines Wego and Sky Scanner to co-market Hong Kong contents, which went viral through influencers, known as a source of inspiration for travel ideas and destinations.

While a lot of travellers are using online resources, physical travel agencies continue to play an important role. To this end, we engaged and equipped the travel trade with the most up-to-date product knowledge through a familiarisation trip, highlighting new tourism products and infrastructure. A business-matching session was held during the trip to inspire new travel products for consumers and create business opportunities for both our overseas and local trade partners.