Deterrent: Entrance fee for Hong Kong wine expo rises in possible move to keep ‘drink tourists’ away
Visitors without an invitation will have to pay HK$600 to enter Vinexpo, which a spokeswoman says is a trade fair, not a consumer event
One of the biggest wine fairs in Hong Kong has raised the entrance fee by 20 per cent to HK$600 and applied an “invitation only policy” to industry players in a possible move to deter “wine tourists”.
The three-day Vinexpo at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai attracted 1,300 exhibitors from 33 countries and is expected to draw 17,000 visitors. It ends on Thursday.
Michael Lam, an industry insider, said it was harder to get into the fair this year as an invitation card issued by the organiser was needed. Otherwise, visitors have to pay HK$600.
In previous years, industry players could just show their business cards to get in, he said.
A spokeswoman for Vinexpo said the practice was “very much in line with all trade fairs across the globe”, as this was “a trade fair, not a consumer fair”, which targeted industry players rather than ordinary visitors.
Despite the entrance restrictions, exhibitors said mainland demand for low and middle-priced wine was good, defying the economic slowdown.
Speaking at the fair, Guy Nussey, Asia-Pacific regional director at Latin America’s biggest wine company, Concha Y Toro, said Chinese consumers had become much more interested in lower-priced wine after a round of price corrections triggered by Beijing’s anti-corruption campaign.
He said more than 90 per cent of people who dropped by the Chilean wine brand’s booth on Tuesday were Chinese. But two years ago they mostly gathered around areas occupied by big French wine brands, which were usually more expensive.
Nussey said sales in China had grown 25 per cent in the last two years, with “e-commerce being a very key driver”.
But he said that China’s vibrant e-commerce industry and the increasing use of mobile phones had made consumers more aware of the subtle differences among wine brands, which had put more pressure on prices.
To cater to growing wine demand in the region,the Open University of Hong Kong and a group called Wines of Argentina signed an agreement to train local wine masters.
Starting from this July, Open University will offer a 30-hour training programme given by wine experts from Argentina.
University president Wong Yuk-shan said Hong Kong, as an international wine trade hub, needed more skilled people as the industry was thriving in both Hong Kong and across the border. He said supply right now was far from satisfactory.
