A pioneer in international travel fairs to highlight Affluent FIT & Theme Travels for both the travel trade and travelers, ITE & MICE this year was held successfully from June 16 to 19 at Halls 1A to 1E of the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre!

 

It continued co-locating leisure and MICE travels, maintaining separate days for trade and public visitors, and highlighting travels for Affluent FIT and Themes such as Cruise, Driving Tour, Eco-tourism, Honeymoon & Overseas Wedding, Sport, Travel Photography and Wellness etc!

 

Officiating the opening this year were Mr. Gregory SO Kam-leung, GBS, JP, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Bureau of the Government of the HKSAR, and Ms Wu Yihuan, Vice Mayor of The Shenzhen Municipal People's Government.

 

 

“Traveling in FIT is fast becoming popular in Asia especially among the affluent travelers, and it dominates source markets like Hong Kong! But our previous public visitor surveys found over 40% buy from travel agent FIT products particularly those on theme travels, and over 50% interested in joining tours at destination! ITE & MICE will continue serving both trade and public”, said KS Tong, Managing Director of TKS which organizes ITE & MICE Hong Kong.

 

VISITORS ~ The Expo drew respectively in two trade days 12081 buyers and trade visitors from Hong Kong and neighboring areas, up 1.7%; and in two public days 87812 visitors, up 12.4%! Detail reports on visitors will be published in the following month.

 

EXHIBITORS ~ With an absolute majority of 86.3 percent of its 604 exhibitors coming from abroad and mainland China, ITE & MICE is essentially a “Principals’ travel fair” where these overseas exhibitors meet directly regional trade, and affluent FIT from Hong Kong! Also, these overseas exhibitors are in best position providing details over wide area of a destination that are often require for theme and affluent FIT travels.

 

TRADE SEMINARS ~ There were, in the two trade days, over 20 seminars with topics covering travel trade, innovations in tourism, theme travels, MICE and corporate travels etc; Business Matching; Mart for Meeting Packages; and concurrent events such as the Trade Forum on “One Belt One Road” Opportunities for Travel Trade and Industry Award Presentation for Hotel Industry in neighboring regions each of which drew well over 100 attendants.