Mega Events

While navigating the future of the industry in the new tourism landscape, arts and culture has risen to prominence in consumers’ newfound travel demand. The HKTB captivated the uniqueness of Hong Kong’s art and culture in promoting Hong Kong’s tourism appeal. Rebranded in May 2021 as an always-on platform for the public to access hybrid, in-venue and online arts events through one integrated content hub, “Arts in Hong Kong” catalogued the profuse listing of arts happenings in- town, ranging from international art fairs to local offers. Art lovers could explore the three thematic programmes, “Art itineraries”, “Art of Flavours” and “Online Showcases” on the platform, at the ease of the digital journey, which allowed both the local public and global audiences to appreciate Hong Kong’s art and cultural offerings.

Enjoying City-wide Art Happenings Online & Offline

“Arts in Hong Kong” promoted about 60 art and cultural happenings in the city, including the internationally acclaimed Art Basel, Aff ordable Art Fair, French May and Art Central. The diversity of events and richness of artworks reinforced Hong Kong as Asia’s art hub by highlighting the city’s East-meets-West capacity for all kinds of arts. A collection of arts related to Hong Kong and local artists’ works encouraged viewers to rediscover Hong Kong in new, artistic perspectives. In particular, “Online Showcases” were set up to allow local and global audiences to navigate hybrid and virtual art happenings online. The artistic experiences of “Arts in Hong Kong” drew worldwide attention, having generated more than 750 media clippings worldwide.

Thematic Walks with Attractive Offers

To enable the public to explore art across the city during the pandemic, the HKTB curated a series of thematic itineraries of walking tours under six themes across 12 districts with an engaging digital art map, covering over 50 points of interests. The HKTB also partnered with online restaurant portal Dining City to feature more than 300 F&B deals from more than 200 local restaurants, in addition to other offers from arty outlets, to allow the public to get a taste of “Art of Flavours”.

Interacting with Arts & Culture

Two award-winning local art icons, singer-songwriter Ivana Wong and cross-media creator Kearen Pang, embarked on the artistic tours and recorded their journey in two interactive micro-films “Interactive Art Walk – Explore with Hong Kong artists” that took viewers from Hong Kong and around the world on an immersive art tour around Hong Kong. Viewers could choose which artsy locations to visit in the micro-films, including some newest checkpoints such as The Mills and West Kowloon Cultural District, and the two artists would guide the viewers on a customised virtual tour. The micro-films attracted more than 4 million views.

Artsy Dialogue with the World

Leveraging the city’s scenic harbour view, the HKTB merged arts with wellness in its “Sip Back & Sketch” Hong Kong Super Fans virtual art class in May 2021. The art class introduced the soothing and meditative art of Zentangle drawing and combined it with sketches of iconic Hong Kong skyline, while transporting the audiences to art landmarks around the city, such as the Hong Kong Museum of Art and West Kowloon Cultural District. Together with a glimpse of the Art Basel exhibition in Hong Kong, the virtual tour offered friends and fans of Hong Kong a participatory experience of Hong Kong’s artistic vibes. The virtual experience was attended by more than 220 participants from around the world and led to a sharing of over 200 posts on social media.

As another testimony of Hong Kong’s art appeal for international artists, two of Hong Kong Super Fans, female French artists Caroline Tronel and Elsa Jean de Dieu shared with local media on how they drew inspirations from the city for their creations.

The stories of Caroline and Elsa also caught the attention of major art, travel and lifestyle media in France, including IDEAT, The Good Life and Geo.fr. The media reported the artists’ stories and explored more on Hong Kong’s art scene with two other Hong Kong Super Fans, gallery owners in Hong Kong Arthur de Villepin and Baptiste Droniou, introducing the city’s cultural appeal to art lovers in Europe.

In November 2021, the HKTB brought back the well- loved Hong Kong Wine & Dine Festival. A total of 400 brick-and-mortar F&B outlets participated in the Festival to offer an all-around-town gourmet experience.

Introducing the fresh new theme “Taste around Town”, the Hong Kong Wine & Dine Festival extended the relishable, chillaxing Wine & Dine experience to four local neighbourhoods in the new-fashioned “City Wine Walk”, which incorporated a digital tasting pass for the first time. Together with the well-received “Tasting On-Air” livestreamed masterclasses and the dine-in “Restaurant Celebrations”, the Wine & Dine Festival continued to connect Hong Kong’s irresistible gastronomic offerings with both local consumers and food lovers from all around the world.

City Wine Walk

Getting into the neighbourhoods for the first time, the Festival has undergone a makeover and ran through the whole month of November to allow participants to enjoy the offerings with greater ease and safety. The “City Wine Walk” boasted a diverse range of 200 offers from 50 specially selected outlets in Central, Wan Chai, Tsim Sha Tsui and Kennedy Town, including internationally acclaimed restaurants and bars and award winners. To enhance the seamless consumer experience, the City Wine Walk offered a Digital Tasting Pass with pre- purchased food or drink tokens stored on the e-wallet of participants’ mobile device, allowing gourmet aficionados to go on their restaurant or bar hopping tours with one single pass.

Enjoying New Experiences with Experts

Riding on the overwhelming reception of the livestreamed masterclasses from the 2020 event, the “Tasting On-Air” programmes continued to team up with gourmet and wine experts to lead interactive tasting workshops with limited-edition experiences that were uncommon on market, such as “en primeur” samples of Bordeaux fine wines, whisky and oyster pairing or fusion cocktail DIY. The nine interactive livestreamed masterclasses were enjoyed by 570,000 gourmet lovers from around the world.

For those who preferred an in-person dine-in experience, the HKTB also lined up a selection of exciting offerings in 400 outlets in town, ranging from trendsetting “Chinese Omakase”, wine tasting with celebrated global wine critic James Suckling, to sustainable seafood feast and degustation menus by rising stars in Hong Kong’s gastronomic scene.

Wine-cation and Masterclass on Cruise

To extend the variety of the wine and dine experience in Hong Kong, the Wine & Dine Festival also partnered with the hospitality and cruise sectors to create new experiences, new adventures with a new gastronomic perspective. Top 100 participants of the City Wine Walk with the tasting pass could receive a HK$1,000 future Cruise Credits for any 4-night itineraries on a cruise liner. The HKTB also gave away packages to participants of the “The Art of Pairing: Johnnie Walker & Chocolate” online masterclass.

During the event period, the HKTB also rolled out a “Wine-cation” promotion with more than 20 star-rated hotels to off er Wine & Dine-themed staycation deals, such as Michelin dinners, complimentary cocktail DIY workshops, free-flow drinks or degustation dinners for guests with room stays.

Taste Hong Kong around the World

While the Wine & Dine Festival was fondly missed by travellers from around the world, the HKTB also staged various thematic campaigns and launched promotions to share Hong Kong’s gourmet experiences with visitor source markets.

In Mainland markets, from October 2021 to January 2022, the HKTB hosted four physical events in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu, each with a unique theme or experience such as wine tasting and nightlife, dim sum sharing, immersive dining in Hong Kong iconic landmarks, or Canto-pop inspired gathering to bring the Hong Kong culinary culture and Mainland travellers’ fondness towards Hong Kong to media, Hong Kong Super Fans and influencers. Over 150 trade partners and media representatives participated in the experiences and generated social media posts that reached 18 million readers in Mainland markets.

The HKTB also organised a series of livestreamed virtual tours during the Festival for those who could not visit Hong Kong in person. Working with local trade partners in South East Asia, the HKTB organised 40-minute “Taste Around Town” live webcasts combining virtual tour to Hong Kong and exclusive cocktail-making workshop to showcase Hong Kong’s trendiest gastronomy scene to audiences in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines.

To maximise the reach of the virtual tours on Hong Kong’s gourmet in Asian markets, in November and December 2021, the HKTB engaged a Hong Kong-born, Taipei-based Michelin chef Lam Ming-kin to share on instant messaging app LINE and deliver the captivating Wine & Dine contents to the app’s users in the Taiwan market through a real-time virtual tour, with more than 260 participants from the market. Similarly, the HKTB secured the support from Taiwanese bartender Angus Zou, whose bar in Hong Kong received a Michelin recommendation, to share his views on Hong Kong’s vibrant bar hopping culture on Traveler magazine. Other reputed chefs also shared their experience with their food trips to Hong Kong. Japanese chef Hidaki Sato discussed his memories on the diverse gourmet experience available across various neighbourhoods in Hong Kong, including Central and Sham Shui Po.

During the Wine & Dine Festival, worldwide broadcasters also showcased Hong Kong’s flavour on TV. A group of professional athletic celebrities in South Korea, including national Olympic representatives and NBA player, visited a Hong Kong-styled Dai Pai Dong in the university district of Hongdae in Seoul and shared their favourite dish on E Channel’s variety show Sporty Brothers.

In addition, celebrity chef and winner of Master Chef Australia Adam Liaw hosted a “Hong Kong Week” with five episodes on free broadcaster SBS Food’s prime time show The Cook Up. Adam invited several Sydney-based Hong Kong Super Fans and together they cooked up a variety of Hong Kong-inspired meals while discussing Hong Kong food, culture, connections and memories. The recipes were shared on the TV programmes website and the dishes were posted on social media, reaching 2 million Australians through social media and another 2 million on SBS Food website.

The festive season is a time when destinations around the world strive to showcase their appeal. Following a virtual showcase in 2020, the return of the physical Hong Kong WinterFest at a new location, Art Park of West Kowloon Cultural District, not only boosted local ambience by providing a festive celebration, but also showcased the new, iconic art and cultural cluster of the West Kowloon Cultural District, against Hong Kong’s celebrated skyline along Victoria Harbour front. “Hong Kong WinterFest” won Bronze Awards in “Best Public Event” and “Best Event Production” in the Event Marketing Awards 2022.

New Location, New Festivity

The 2021 Hong Kong WinterFest brought back the signature high-rise Christmas Tree and a romantic decoration of Christmas Town as an extension of the “Hong Kong Neighbourhood – West Kowloon” promotion by relocating the event to West Kowloon Cultural District. The 20-metre Christmas tree was the tallest in town and brightened up Victoria Harbour with festive ambience. It topped the list of “Hong Kong’s Top Five Christmas Display of the year” by South China Morning Post. The Christmas tree and Christmas Town drew a total of more than 910,000 visitors to the West Kowloon Cultural District, raising the public’s awareness of West Kowloon Cultural District and M+ as the city’s latest cultural destination.

In addition to the Christmas tree, the campaign’s website also featured a comprehensive calendar of city-wide happenings during the festive season. A wide range of exclusive seasonal privileges in unique themes including shopping coupons, dining promotions, and discounts from hotels and restaurants were made available on the Holiday at Home website to stimulate local consumption.

Christmas-themed Seacation

The HKTB also partnered with the cruise sector to present a Christmas-themed seacation on-board as the cruise liner homeported in Hong Kong, with a miniature Christmas Town staged on the open deck. An exciting array of culinary delights, themed activities, workshops and season-limited entertainment were also available to further enhance product offerings and attractiveness of cruise-to-nowhere tourism in Hong Kong. The Christmas-themed seacation experience attracted 55,000 passengers on board.

To further capture worldwide attention towards Hong Kong’s excitement and normality under the pandemic, and to showcase the city’s signature night view and state-of-the-art tourism infrastructure, the Hong Kong New Year Countdown Celebrations returned in with a first-ever physical outdoor countdown concert and was livestreamed to worldwide audiences, with a view to upholding Hong Kong as “Asia’s World City” through demonstrating the city’s ability to stage world-class events.

HKTB’s First-ever Outdoor Countdown Concert

The Hong Kong New Year Countdown Concert invited a list of popular Cantopop singers and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HKPhil) to stage a star-studded collaboration between modern and classical music against the dazzling Victoria Harbour skyline. To allow the general public a chance to participate in the celebrations, a public lucky draw was organised to allow members of the public fair chances to win a ticket to the Countdown Concert. More than 200,000 members of the public entered the lucky draw. To ensure fairness, a real-name ticketing pre-registration was implemented through an online lucky draw preventing transfer or resale of tickets.

To maximise public enjoyment, the concert and the countdown moments were livestreamed on HKTB’s own online platform as well as more than 750 media platforms in Hong Kong, mainland and overseas. 30 shopping malls across Hong Kong also shared the livestream at various locations. The livestream of the concert attracted 12 million views on HKTB’s platform, and reached an audience of 2.4 billion around the world.

New Elements, New Excitement

To display Hong Kong in its full beauty, an enhanced version of the multi-media laser show A Symphony of Lights was launched with pyrotechnic effects and accompanied by both western and traditional Chinese classical music by HKPhil as the time was leading up to the countdown moments. The giant façade of M+ was transformed into a striking countdown clock along the Kowloon coastline, which was clearly visible on both sides of the Harbour. The countdown clock sent out congratulatory messages to the world in 15 languages to connect Hong Kong with worldwide audiences.

Global Sensation

The HKTB specially facilitated live broadcast of the Celebrations in various regional and international broadcasters in key source markets when Hong Kong welcomed 2022 at midnight, such as BBC, Reuters, Associated Press, Sky News, Channel News Asia, CBS News, CNN, CCTV, People’s Daily, Fox News Channel, among others. Many post-countdown news reports around the world also covered or rebroadcast Hong Kong’s countdown celebrations in respective markets, generating clippings from more than 1,300 media platforms worldwide.