Food and Wine Year just around the corner

The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) will stage the Hong Kong Food and Wine Year Spotlight Events from October 30 to November 8, presenting a tantalizing experience of fine wine, cuisine and entertainment for visitors and local residents.

The anchor event will be the three-day Hong Kong Wine and Dine Festival, during which participants can taste approximately 300 brands of wines from 15 countries, as well as more than 150 local food items. They can also enjoy Hong Kong’s first-ever, outdoor 3D multimedia show, a large-scale art installation by local artists and an array of live performances with different themes.

“Hong Kong enjoys a longstanding reputation for its cuisine, which is indeed its core tourism appeal,” HKTB Chairman James Tien said.

“Leveraging on the exemption of wine duty by the government, the HKTB has designated 2009 as the Hong Kong Food and Wine Year. In organizing this first-ever Hong Kong Food and Wine Year Spotlight Events, we aim to showcase to visitors our delectable offerings and reinforce our standing as a gourmet paradise,” said Mr. Tien.

HKTB is collaborating with its travel-trade partners in various source markets to put together a series of package tours and itineraries — themed around the territory’s cuisine and wine — that will stimulate travelers’ desire to visit the territory and, in turn, create greater business opportunities for the city’s travel and related sectors.

American Express International will be the presenting sponsor of the 10-day festival, which will comprise four key elements:

1. The Hong Kong Wine and Dine Festival, which is the first-ever, large-scale outdoor fine wine and gourmet event, held from October 30 to November 1, at the West Kowloon Waterfront Promenade.
2. Street carnivals organized by two major food districts, Lan Lwai Fong and SoHo, on November 6-8. 
3. An array of activities put together by the catering and tourism sectors.
4. A series of wining and dining offers.    

More information can be found on the Web site.

August visitors increase by 5.8%

Reversing the downward trend of the previous three months, August visitor arrivals to Hong Kong grew 5.8% year-on-year to reach 2,834,178, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board. The increase is due to the lower base of arrivals during the 2008 Summer Olympics in August 2008, when visits by long-haul travelers were affected by the Mainland visa policy adjustment and many from the Mainland stayed home for the Olympic Games.

In August, all long-haul market regions achieved gains when compared with the substantial shortfall in the equivalent period last year. These included the Americas and Europe and Africa and the Middle East, which registered increases of 9.7% and 10.4%, respectively.

In the short-haul regions, North Asia continued to be affected by the decrease in outbound travel from South Korea. The gap, however, narrowed 24 percentage points from -34.1% in May to -10.1% in August. Similarly, Taiwan continued its downward trend owing to the impact of cross-strait direct links. The shortfall, however, slowed to a single-digit 3.7%. On the other hand, mainland China recorded a year-on-year increase of 9.2%, as consumers’ travel confidence improved. A summary of the arrivals from different market regions is listed below:

* Total figure includes arrivals from the Macau Special Administrative Region

Overall, 59.3% of all August visitors to Hong Kong stayed in the city at least one night, 1.1 percentage points less than the same month in 2008. The remaining 40.7% same-day, in-town visitors either returned home or left for another destination the same day they arrived.

Hotel occupancy across all categories of hotels in August was 82%, three percentage points lower year-on-year. The average achieved hotel-room rate across all hotel categories was US$113.07, 20.3% lower than in August 2008.

Golden Week records Mainland visitor growth

Visitor arrivals from mainland China during this year’s eight-day National Day Golden Week holiday (October 1-8) reached 590,882, 15.8% more than September 29-October 6, 2008 (the Golden Week plus the next day), according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB).

Of the Mainland arrivals during Golden Week, 69% (407,483) arrived under the Individual Visit Scheme, a year-on-year increase of 17.1%. Among them, 18.5% were visits made by Shenzhen residents with multiple-entry visa endorsements. This amounted to a daily average of approximately 9,500 arrivals per day, which is higher than the average on normal days. The number of visitors joining group tours to Hong Kong increased 36.1% to 42,906.

HKTB Chairman James Tien attributed the gain to a number of factors. “The increase can mainly be attributed to the slight improvement to the economic conditions,” he said. “As a matter of fact, consumers’ sentiments to travel have shown no signs of decline. These were further boosted by the various attractive promotional packages rolled out by the travel trade during the Golden Week period.

“This year, the National Day holidays coincided with the Mid-Autumn Festival, resulting in an extended Golden Week. This gave visitors greater flexibility in planning their travel itineraries. In particular, those from the South China region could have a choice of visiting Hong Kong during the latter part of the holiday.

“While remarkable growth was recorded for the Mainland arrivals during the Golden Week period, the market conditions remain volatile,” Mr Tien continued. “Building on the positive trend, we will continue to strengthen our promotions in the coming months so that we can attract even more visitors in the fourth quarter of this year.”

Hong Kong's countryside: An alternative tourist attraction

For more details about the new promotion, see the "Great Outdoors Hong Kong!" Web site.

Those who consider Hong Kong to be a concrete jungle may be surprised to learn that approximately 40% of the city’s land area is country parks, which offer ideal locations for hiking and functions as an urban retreat.

To showcase the city’s picturesque countryside, the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) launched a new “Great Outdoors Hong Kong!” promotion, encouraging visitors to experience different sections of MacLehose Trail, Hong Kong’s longest hiking trail.

Chairman of HKTB James Tien said, “Hong Kong is much more than a bustling cosmopolitan city, offering stunning natural sceneries. In recent years, the HKTB has been strengthening our effort to promote our countryside, so as to broaden Hong Kong’s appeal.”

The “Great Outdoors Hong Kong!” campaign, which coincides with the city’s hiking season that began in October, aims to highlight Hong Kong’s hiking trails and nature attractions.

“To tie in with the Hong Kong Food and Wine Year, we are also promoting the local dining outlets and other attractions in the vicinity of the trail, so that visitors can enjoy the combined pleasures of hiking and dining,” said Mr. Tien.

Promoting Hong Kong’s natural ecology and landscape is part of the HKTB’s long-term strategy for marketing Hong Kong as a travel destination.

Fuel surcharges to continue

On October 23, Hong Kong’s Civil Aviation Department (CAD) gave approval for passenger fuel surcharges levied by two airlines (Cathay Pacific Airways and Nepal Airlines) to be maintained for the period November 1-30.   The maximum levels of fuel surcharges will remain at US$9.1 for short-haul flights and US$42.05 for long-haul flights.   The applicable surcharge levels are based on the ticket issue date.      

It is an international practice for airlines to levy passenger fuel surcharges.   A CAD spokesman said, “When compared with the average amounts of surcharges at the international level, the surcharges on the local routes remain at a lower level.
“Fuel surcharges are a type of aviation tariff which requires the approval of the relevant aeronautical authorities before they can be levied,” the CAD spokesman added.    

In dealing with the latest applications for levying fuel surcharges, the CAD has followed the same approach in regard to changes in the prices of aviation fuel, the justifications provided by the airline operators and other relevant factors such as the charges levied by the other airlines.   This approach has been followed consistently in dealing with fuel surcharge applications regardless of whether oil prices are on the increase or decrease.     

Passenger fuel surcharges seek to allow airlines to partially recover the increase in operational costs due to fluctuations in aviation fuel prices.      Passenger fuel surcharges are reviewed regularly by the CAD.   The last review was done at the end of September when the maximum surcharge levels approved by the CAD were US$9.1 for short-haul flights and US$42.05 for long-haul flights.