Hong Kong should target business travellers to offset fall in tourism, Legco report urges

Hong Kong should attract more business visitors to offset the impact of a drop in local inbound tourism, a Legislative Council research report released today said.

The report, titled “Hong Kong’s tourism industry”, said Hong Kong had not done enough to promote business travel, while regional rivals had put in place medium- to long-term plans to attract business travellers by targeting growth in the MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) industry.

“Compared with Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing and Seoul have rolled out more proactive measures to promote themselves as the premier MICE destination in Asia-Pacific,” the report said.

It said business travel could bring many benefits to the host city, including increased spending on accommodation and shopping.

“The per capita spending of overnight business visitors has all along been higher than that of overnight non-business visitors,” it said, adding: “Business travellers can help the host city by taking up some of the empty rooms available during off-peak seasons.”

It said Hong Kong’s inbound tourism exhibited a slowdown this year as total visitor arrivals rose just 2.8 per cent in the first six months, according to figures released by the Hong Kong Tourism Board.