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HKTDC exhibitions in Hong Kong Hong Kong Trade Development Council

A wide variety of exhibitions and conferences helps make Hong Kong a MICE centre.

H ong Kong has gained worldwide recognition as one of the pre-eminent destinations for Meetings, Incentives, Conventions

and Exhibitions (MICE). In 2013, Hong Kong was chosen, for the fifth consecutive year, by readers of Business Traveller (Asia-Pacific edition) as the “Best Business City in the World”. The Hong Kong Trade Develop-ment Council (HKTDC), a statutory body established in 1966, has been striving for excellence in its exhibitions and conferences to reinforce this well-established reputation of Hong Kong through its over 40 global of-fices, including 13 in mainland China.

While continuously exploring markets for Hong Kong’s small- and medium-sized enterprises, the HKTDC focuses on delivering value by promoting trade in goods and services and connects the world’s busi-nesses through Hong Kong’s excellent platform. To strengthen Hong Kong’s competitiveness as a regional centre of MICE, the HKTDC brings some 30 world-class international trade fairs to Hong Kong each year. Many of the trade exhibitions are the biggest in Asia, and even in the world.

Reliable trade platformOne of the HKTDC’s foremost ways to promote trade is to build Hong

Kong as a reliable trade platform for both local and for-eign businesses. In 2013, the HKTDC hosted 35 exhibi-tions and welcomed about 720,000 trade buyers and 34,000-plus exhibitors from nearly 200 countries and regions. Three mega fairs, the largest of their kind in the world, namely the Electronics Fair (Autumn Edition),

the Hong Kong G i f t s & P r e -mium Fair and the Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair , have now become the most influential sourc-ing and marketing platforms for the industries.

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Events welcoming public visitorsApart from dedicating itself to providing a prime matching platform for international exhibitors and buyers, the HKTDC also realises the impor-tance of brand building to businesses at different development stages. Many trade events are therefore implemented with public days to cater for such marketing ambition.

The World Boutique held last January was marked one of the chicest celebrations in the region with both the internation-ally established and up-and-coming brands on display. Hong Kong Fash-ion Extravaganza, a zeal-ously anticipated evening event also held in January, presented contemporary

fashions from the East and the West in one exclusive gala show. Another most talked about topic of the city, the Hong Kong In-

ternational Wine & Spirits Fair, is said to be a must-attend event on the wine calendar. With its enchanting ambience, last year’s wine fair at-tracted over 1,000 exhibitors from 40 countries and regions. Besides re-peat participation of “Old World” countries with a long history of wine-making such as Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Turkey, etc, the fair was enlivened to have Jordan, Lithuania, Montenegro and Morocco as first-time participant countries. Over 20,000 trade buyers and 24,000-plus public visitors attended the fair, confirming the growing popularity of wine throughout the region.

Apart from investing resources on exhibitions at the trade and busi-ness levels, the HKTDC also regularly organises public fairs for locals and others. Celebrating its 25th edition this year, the Hong Kong Book Fair

is one of the major annual public fairs in Hong Kong, which attracted some 980,000 visitors in a week last year.

A series of community events, named “Cultural July”, were offered as a promotional lead-in to the July 2013 Hong Kong Book Fair. More than 450 cultural events took place across the city and at the HKCEC, including the highly popular Pure Land: Inside the Mogao Grottoes at Dunhuang (3D theatre), the Wisely’s 50th An-niversary Exhibition, and seminars featuring renowned authors such as

Chan Koonchung, Zhang Dachun, Erica Jong, Jung Chang, etc. Over the years, the Hong Kong Book Fair has developed from a mere promo-

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tional platform for the industry to a major annual region-wide reading and cultural event for the public of Hong Kong and beyond.

The Food Expo, a public event with continuous success year after year, has proven itself to be the ideal market-place for traders to

explore business potential in the Trade Hall, as well as for public visitors to purchase the most sought-after food products in the Public Hall and delightful delicacies such as Kobe beef, caviar, premium confectionery, organic food, frozen seafood, fine wine, etc in the Gourmet Zone.

In response to increasing passion from the public for cooking and food as observed in the Food Expo, the HKTDC will launch a new pub-lic show dedicated to food-related equipment, accessories and electrical appliances in August 2014 - Home Delights Expo.

The HKTDC has long devoted considerable resources to serving not only businesses but also the Hong Kong community by incorporat-ing public days into trade events, such as the Hong Kong Internation-al Tea Fair and the International Conference & Exhibition of the Modernisation of Chinese Medicine & Health Products (ICMCM) in August, the Salon de TE in September (co-located with the Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair), and the Eco Expo Asia, which takes place every October.

Facilitating visitors and touristsThe HKTDC has always been eager to go the extra mile to facilitate tourists from abroad and mainland China to attend events in Hong Kong. Special arrangements are in place to make visits to the HKTDC’s fairs easy and accessible. For instance, dedicated entrances are provided for tourists and visiting groups. Ticket concessions are also available to eligible visitors with special needs.

Collaboration with MICE tradersTo maximise the effectiveness of Hong Kong’s existing network for MICE promotion, the HKTDC will further collaborate with stakeholders in the MICE profession for the overall trade development of Hong Kong. It also looks forward to welcoming event participants from around the world, while continuing to host top-notch events and provide necessary support for the development of the local MICE sector.