Co-location drew more MICE / corporate visitors interested in outbound

 

The only of its kind in Hong Kong and Guangdong, ITE MICE co-locates with the leisure focused and long established ITE for synergy. However, each maintains its own visitor promotions, and ITE MICE is additionally supported by event industry associations in Hong Kong and Macau. Further, a series of related seminars are held in the second trade day designated as the MICE / Corporate Travel Day.

 

The co-location enables exhibitors covering, under one roof, both markets of leisure and MICE travels. Of the total 665 international exhibitors in 2012 who came from 54 countries and regions, around 120 targeted MICE and corporate visitors. Some of the 30 plus official pavilions / stands also featured MICE, and there were related exhibitors too in theme pavilions such as Honeymooning & Overseas Wedding.

 

MICE & Corporate Visitors interested in Outbound

 

Together, the Expo 2012 drew around 3300 MICE and corporate visitors (up 14%) and 5700 travel agents and tour operators, out of the total of 12,175 buyers and trade visitors in the two trade days with 20% from mainland China and another 7% from abroad.

 

Survey found 86% of the MICE and corporate visitors collected destination info in ITE & MICE, a reflection of their high interest on outbound MICE, and respectively 58% and 56% for choosing agent and venue.

 

These MICE / CORP visitors came mainly from the following business sectors: 20.2% from various professional services, 15.4% from Training and Education, 13.5% from organizers and event planners, and 10.2% from governments and public organizations. By responsibility, around 36% involved in setting travel policy and decision making, while another 20.3% in sourcing and recommending.

 

They reported a positive outlook on travel spending by their corporations in this year, with 36.8% indicating an increase in budget and 55.7% about the same as last year.

 

Pre-appointment & Business Matching

 

ITE & MICE draws quality MICE and trade visitors to attend the exhibition where they meet the sellers, and there are free services enhancing contacts between buyers and sellers.

 

Seminars including those by exhibitors are publicized in official website where visitors can pre-register online, and there were over 2000 online pre-registrations for seminars in the trade days in 2012. Exhibitors and buyers, hosted and registered included, can make pre-appointment directly with each other via password enabled online system, or meet onsite in Business Matching which was first launched in 2012.

 

Months before and after the trade fair opening, exhibitors information are posted on trade website of ITE & MICE which attracted, for examples, over 25,000 visits in the month of May and 38000 visits between June 1 and 17 this year.

 

MICE / Trade Visitor Promotions

 

ITE MICE has comprehensive visitor promotion campaigns covering travel trade, MICE industry and business sectors, parts of which are rather unique.

 

Leveraging on the annual ITE which is in its 26th edition this year, ITE MICE is ensured of good attendance by the regional travel trade but continues being promoted in regional media, local business dailies and portals.

 

In addition to direct mailings using in-house data base, travel and MICE trade associations and chambers of commerce in Hong Kong and Macau help distributing invitations / tickets of ITE & MICE to their members. Some such as the Hong Kong Exhibition & Convention Industry Association (HKECIA) and Macau Convention & Exhibition Association are supporters of ITE MICE.

 

Meet also Affluent FIT in Public Days

 

The 70,000 plus public visitors are travel enthusiasts, have good education so presumably good income, strongly prefer traveling in FIT, and come mainly from Hong Kong. ITE & MICE, the city’s only travel fair, offers an excellent and unique platform to reach out to them.

 

Survey found 80% of the respondents prefer traveling in FIT or tailored made tour group; respectively 43% and 25% with university and post secondary education; 18% made 5 or more overnight leisure trips in the past twelve months and 75% made two or more.

 

 

Also, 29% are interested in attending travel seminars, more than the 20% in booking tours and purchasing travel products. They are less affected by economic uncertainty, as over 70% expected spending more on travel in the coming 12 months and only 5% said will not.

 

Hong Kong citizens can visit visa-free over 140 countries and regions in the world. With a population of 7.1 million, Hong Kong spent US$175 billion in 2010 on international tourism, while Japan with 127.1 million people spent US$27.9 billion in the same year. These statistics reflect the significance of Hong Kong as a source market, especially its FIT segment.

 

Highly International Exhibitors’ Profile draws Visitors

 

Some 85% of the exhibitors of ITE & MICE 2012 came from outside Hong Kong, and around half of the 54 participating countries and regions are in Africa, Americas, Europe and the Middle East. Thus, the Expo leads in Asia by scale of its international exhibitors.

 

There were over 30 official pavilions / stands. Travel themes of Cruise, Wellness & Medical Tourism, Study Tours, and Travel Photography etc were highlighted, and there were over 100 seminars in its four days. In presenting world travels, ITE & MICE integrates geography with themes including those new and trendy.

 

Organized by TKS Exhibition Services Ltd, ITE & MICE is supported by China National Tourism Administration, Hong Kong Tourism Board, Macau Government Tourist Office, and the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong.

 

The next ITE & MICE, which again is a co-location of ITE and ITE MICE, will be held from June 13-16, 2013 at halls 1A to 1E of the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre. For further info, please visit our trade websites of www.itehk.com. For enquiry, please use the online enquiry form at the trade website, send email to travel@tkshk.com , or fax to (852) 3520 1500.

 

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Issued by:

TKS Exhibition Services Ltd | Room 601, Stanhope House, 734 King’s Road, Quarry Bay, Hong Kong

Tel: (852) 3155 0600 | Fax: (852) 3520 1500 | Email: travel@tkshk.com

Trade Website: www.itehk.com | Public Website: www.travelexpo.com.hk