Highlighting and displaying travel themes and products particularly suitable for affluent travelers, FIT and travel trade serving them, ITE & MICE 2015, a co-location of the 29th ITE on leisure travel and the 10th ITE MICE, was held successfully at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre. Mr. CY Leung, Chief Executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Zone (SAR), issued a message welcoming all participants! Officiating the opening this year was Miss Cathy Chu, JP, Commissioner for Tourism of the Government of Hong Kong SAR.
In all, 11874 regional buyers and trade visitors attended the Travel Expo this year in its two trade days, with around 25% from mainland China and overseas. By business nature, 21.3% were from MICE and corporations while all travel trade and media accounted for some 79%.
The public days this year drew 78116 visitors, who likely will again be dominated by FIT. In fact, survey last year found some 83% of the public visitors prefer traveling in FIT or private groups, and findings this year will be published in coming July.
Exhibitors & Travel Themes
Exhibiting this year in some 14,000 square meters of space were 607 international exhibitors from 50 countries and regions from Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, Middle East and island paradises in the Pacific and Indian oceans. Again, ITE & MICE maintains a highly international profile of exhibitors as 85% of them came from abroad and over half of the participating destinations from outside Asia.
Especially among the affluent travelers and FIT, more now prefer In-depth travel and travel for favorite themes, and more exhibitors are responding to such trend. Themes highlighted this year included MICE/Corporate Travel with some 180 related exhibitors; Sport, Adventures, Eco-tourism, Honeymoon & Overseas Wedding (HOW), Travel Photography, Culture and Heritage each with around 50 related exhibitors, Cruise and Wellness etc. These were done through trade and public seminars, special displays and joint efforts with related trade associations etc.
This year, 7 repeating official pavilions made substantial expansions this year the largest of which doubling in size, and there were 8 newly exhibiting destinations from Europe, central Asia, the Indian Ocean and Pacific. All important sources for new exhibitors in ITE & MICE!
Trade Days & Business Matching
Registration was required for admission in trade days, which opened only to the travel trade, MICE and corporate travel managers and executives. There were Business Matching, some 15 seminars for the travel trade and 10 on MICE and Corporate Travel, and Industry Award Ceremony etc.
Through pre-show e-newsletters and online registration system, ITE & MICE helps inviting trade visitors to seminars by exhibitors. Relatively new in our “Helps to Exhibitors” is Business Matching (BM), where buyers who had fixed seats while the sellers moved around. Buyer and seller met briefly for introduction, exploring interest and possibility of business co-operation, and if positive fix next meeting for detail discussion. We are pleased with the positive responses and comments on BM!
Ever popular in trade days were the International Destination Update Series featuring different countries. New this year, for example, was an industry forum on “Business Dynamics between traditional travel agents and OTA” with a panel of speakers from different sectors.
Some of the functions are organized by related associations. For examples, the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) had its seminar on “Increasing ROI of Talent Management of Corporate Travel Programme”, while the Hong Kong Wedding Management Association covered “Attractive Services / Products for Overseas Wedding” with a Business Matching for meeting their wedding planner members.
Public Days & FIT
FIT, which offers great flexibility to suit travelers’ preference, dominates Hong Kong’s outbound. Other favorable factors include Hong Kong passport holder can visit visa free some 140 countries and regions in the world and English is widely spoken. True, FIT does cost more, perhaps reflecting their willingness to pay extra for quality and ITE & MICE gathers a lot of them!
Travel seminars are great for planning long or sophisticated trips and popular in public days! Around 100 were held this year, and many were hosted by well known travel writers. The more popular ones, such as those on cruise holidays worldwide and aurora trips, each drew over 200 audiences.
There were also round-the-clock cultural performances with troupes brought in from abroad by various exhibiting tourism boards, grand lucky draw, and special offers from some exhibitors as retail sale is allowed on and only on public days.
Supporters & Next Event
Organized by TKS Exhibition Services Ltd., ITE & MICE is supported by China National Tourism Administration, Hong Kong Tourism Board, Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong and Macau Government Tourist Office, trade associations of travel agents and event industries from Hong Kong and in the region.
The next ITE & MICE will be held from 16 to 19 Jun 2016 at Halls 1A to 1E at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre. For further info www.itehk.com.
