ITE & MICE Hong Kong 2015:In an online survey conducted earlier this month on travel enthusiasts in Hong Kong, 81.7% of the respondents said “Occupy Central” has not affected their travel plan in last Christmas, and 89% said no effect on their travel plan in 2015 which can possibly include both keeping and increasing the spending.
The survey found few canceled trips as a result! Of the 18.3% respondents whose holiday in last Christmas has been negatively affected by “Occupy Central”, only 1.5% canceled their trips, 5.8% changed or postponed holiday, and another 11% just spent less.
Using in-house database, the survey is conducted by TKS which organizes ITE & MICE, Hong Kong’s annual international travel expo. Past public visitors of ITE & MICE were invited to take part in the survey. A total of 1586 replies were received, and 35% of the respondents reported having outbound holiday in last Christmas.
Lasting for 4 days, the last ITE & MICE drew 12308 regional buyers and trade visitors in two trade days, and 75300 public visitors in two public days; and 650 exhibitors (85% from abroad) from 47 countries and regions from all over the World.
Onsite survey in ITE & MICE 2014 found 59% of the public visitors traveled 2 to 4 times while another 16% traveled 5 times or more in the past twelve months. They are indeed travel enthusiasts, and are likely opinion leaders and/or trend-setters among friends and family members on traveling!
“Theme travels and traveling in FIT are becoming more popular, particularly among the affluent and seasoned travelers. They constitute a large part of our public visitors. We also want to find out more about their preferences through this survey”, said KS Tong, Managing Director of TKS.
When asked to pick interested travel themes, nearly 78% of respondents chose two or more and only 1.5% chose nothing. The top five popular themes are found to be “Wildlife Tour” at 40.7%, “Driving Tour” at 40%, “Travel Photography” at 35%, “Sport Tourism” at 34.5% and “Cruise” at 32.3%.
FIT (traveling individually instead of package tour) is popular in Hong Kong and increasingly so in mainland China too. In fact, some 77% of the public visitors of ITE & MICE 2014 preferred traveling in FIT. Many of these travelers often buy Air Ticket + Hotel packages for their trips.
The survey found 38.6% of respondents bought such package from travel agents and 70.7% online in the past 12 months. Moreover, 56.1% of respondents are interested in joining local tours at destination, a choice likely be more popular with FIT.
ITE & MICE 2015, which co-locates the 29th ITE and the 10th ITE MICE, will be held from June 11 to 14, 2015 at Halls 1A to 1E of the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition centre. It is supported by China National Tourism Administration, Hong Kong Tourism Board, the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong, Macau Government Tourist Office, travel trade & MICE associations in the region. For more details, please visit www.itehk.com
