Hong Kong sees 7% growth in tourist footfalls from India in January-March 2019

Mumbai: Hong Kong witnessed 7.32 percent rise in tourist arrivals from India during January-March 2019 at 82,955 visitors, helped by initiatives to promote local culture, outdoors and cruises, an official said. Hong Kong received 77,293 visitors from India during January-March 2018, while it hosted 3,86,681 Indians during the entire year. “Looking at the trend during the first quarter, we expect a similar growth of over 7.3 percent during 2019,” Hong Kong Tourism Board Director, Market Development, India, Puneet Kumar told PTI here. “Additionally, we are seeing that our in-market initiatives to push newer experiences in the local culture, great outdoors and cruises are yielding positive results,” he said. He said in the first quarter of 2019, Hong Kong saw strong double-digit growth in meetings, incentives, conferences and events (MICE) and fly-cruise arrivals from India. [caption id=“attachment_4477007” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] “Going forward, we will undertake focused efforts to grow our market share in India. We want Hong Kong to stay on top of mind among Indians and we will continue to build their awareness and interest towards Hong Kong,” he added. In 2019, the focus for the Hong Kong Tourism board is to grow its overnight visitor arrivals from India as there are a lot of interesting experiences that are yet to be discovered, he said. Currently, India is among the top 15 source markets for Hong Kong. “Our aim is to increase the number of arrivals and spends from India to be among the top 10 markets for Hong Kong,” Kumar said. Currently, its top 10 source markets are mainland China, Taiwan, South Korea, the US, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, UK, Singapore and Australia. The fastest growing segment for Hong Kong today is the young and affluent Indians who are exposed to global culture and experiences, he said. “Hong Kong’s primary target audience are young or mid-career segment aged between 24-45 years, which forms about 50 percent of its overnight arrivals and families with young kids that forms about 34 percent of its overnight arrivals from cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru,” he noted. However, there is also an increasing trend in visitor arrivals from non-metros like Ahmedabad, Pune and Cochin, he added. Fly-cruise travel is the fastest growing segment for Hong Kong in the Indian market and the tourism board will continue to stimulate the demand for this segment. “We have lined up multiple-phased promotional campaigns in partnership with media, trade and non-trade partners to engage with leisure, cruise and MICE segment. “With improved air connectivity from all six ports, we are positive about an increase in market share this year. All these initiatives will make Hong Kong super attractive all-year-round holiday destination among Indians,” Kumar added.