Shayan Mallick | New Delhi Aimed at facilitating event organisers and corporate entities, and growing destination’s incentives share, ‘Hong Kong Incentive Playbook’ offers over 100 authentic HK experiences and 40+ innovative team-building ideas, along with new funding schemes, professional planning, advisory support, and more.
Hong Kong is renowned for its world-class business events and incentives offerings, and it’s recently launched captivating incentives programme ‘Hong Kong Incentives Playbook’ has only made it far more attractive for corporates and incentives organisers.
The programme’s offerings include, from curated authentic experiences and team- building activities to funding schemes and professional planning and more, all aimed at enhancing organisers and visitors’ experiences in the destination.
With nearly 700,000 international MICE arrivals in H1 2024, Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) is keen to further give fillip to Hong Kong’s profile as a premier destination for corporate events and incentives.
Speaking on the sidelines of its recently concluded road show in Delhi, Puneet Kumar, Director, South Asia & Middle East, HKTB, said that HKTB is prioritising the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) segment, which has shown robust recovery.
He said, “India is one of the top five source markets for the incentive group travel segment of the MICE business, and we have registered a robust rebound in demand from Indian corporates to stage events for their distributor networks, reward employees, or organise global meets for senior management.” India may not feature in Hong Kong’s overall top ten tourism source markets but ranks among the top five source markets for Incentives group travel segment.
Furthermore, he said, “To further cultivate the MICE segment, we have launched a brand new programme, ‘Hong Kong Incentive Playbook,’ that offers over 100 authentic HK experiences and 40+ innovative team-building ideas. These unique offerings are designed to excite and attract incentive groups, thereby enhancing Hong Kong’s appeal in this competitive market. HKTB is offering new funding schemes, professional planning, and advisory support, and exclusive hospitality offers to give the edge in planning and staging events for event organisers and corporates.”
The programme’s experiences and activities have been clubbed under five themes, namely, Nightlife & Parties, Wellness & Nature, Art & Culture, Hong Kong Neighbourhood and Hong Kong Signatures, all collection of iconic experiences and places of interests. “Every theme is designed with recommendations that resonates with the particular segment. At the same you can also play the itinerary in ways such as that you have a slice of vibrant art and cultural scene while also sampling the best of the food and wining and dining or party options,” added Kumar.
The incentives scheme, launched in April this year, was further supported by a mega MICE programme. Ten leading MICE operators from India attended the launch ceremony followed by destination familiarisation trip. The event drew 120 MICE operators from five key markets
“We have also seen that Indian corporates demand including wellness elements in the itinerary, more so if they are organizing their employees retreat or employees reward programmme. And Hong Kong is a perfect destination when it comes to wellness and nature. 70 percent of our landmass is green. We have over 260 islands, easily accessible and within 30 minutes ferry rides,” he elaborated.
Hong Kong has witnessed strong recovery, receiving 181,000 Indian visitors, almost 90 per cent of pre-pandemic arrivals, in the first half of 2024. However, the recovery has been more telling in the Incentives group travel segment, prompting the tourism board to launch the new program.
Furthermore, highlighting the growing importance of India’s source market potential, Kumar, informed that India is Hong Kong’s number one tourism source market among its ‘Emrging Markets’ portfolio, and contributes a staggering 50 percent of this portfolio’s overall share. Vietnam, Russia and Middle East are the other markets in this bracket.
