Noted for its highly international profile of exhibitors, its regional trade visitors and affluent FIT public visitors, ITE & MICE this year grows by some 6% in scale!
Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR The Hon C Y Leung sent his Message to welcome all participants, and officiating the opening on June 13 are Mr Philip YUNG, JP, Commissioner for Tourism, Tourism Commission of the Government of the Hong Kong SAR and Mr Wang Zhifa, Vice Chairman of China National Tourism Administration.
Some large official pavilions repeating their presences with substantial expansions, which is a major factor for the Expo’s overall increase in scale, and they include Japan, Seychelles, Taiwan, Turkey, and Sabah of Malaysia. Another key factor is the increased presence of local travel agents, with new exhibitors and substantial expansion by repeated exhibitors. Meanwhile, China, Egypt, South Korea, Macau and Hong Kong etc maintain their significant presences.
Newly exhibiting destinations in the Travel Expo this year come from Cyprus, Finland, India, Iraq, Morocco, Nepal, Phuket of Thailand, Svalbard of Norway, and USA, and they include both official participations and individual exhibitors. New also is the pavilion of China’s Ningxia Province, which though being part of the China’s Pavilion has its own design.
In all, there are 680 exhibitors from around 47 countries and regions, with some 30 official stands / pavilions and over 80% of the exhibitors coming from abroad. The Travel Expo in Hong Kong will use Halls 1A to 1E in the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre with total area of some 16000 SQM.
Trade associations such as The Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE), the Hong Kong Wedding Management Association (HKWMA), the Asia Cruise Association (ACA), Hong Kong Institute of Marketing (HKIM), and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Hotel General Manager Association etc will hold in ITE & MICE this year their Forum, seminar and function.
Also highlighted are the new travel theme of Sport Tourism and repeating themes like Cruise, Study Tours, Travel Photography, Wellness and Honeymooning & Overseas Weddings. The second trade day on June 14 is designated MICE / CORPORATE DAY with a series of related seminars.
The Expo runs a number of programs facilitating contacts between buyers and sellers, who can make pre-appointments directly via our password-enabled online system, or meet in our Business Matching held onsite. We also run limited scheme of assigned pre-appointments. But above all, there are plenty of opportunities for face to face interactions like at exhibitors’ stands or in social functions.
The Travel Expo opens only to trade on June 13 and 14, and public can visit it on June 15 and 16 with tickets available at the entrance.
In the public days are some 80 travel seminars with either celebrity or expert as speakers, round the clock cultural performances by overseas troupes sponsored by their respective tourism boards, special offers from exhibitors, auctioning of travel products, travel photo exhibitions by experts and celebrities, a travel agent zone and individual stands of travel agents to facilitate onsite booking of tours, and grand lucky draw with air tickets as prizes.
Organized by TKS Exhibition Services Ltd., ITE & MICE is supported by China National Tourism Administration, Hong Kong Tourism Board, Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong and Macau Government Tourist Office, trade associations of travel agents and event industries from Hong Kong and in the region.
