(From left) Director of HKTB US, Bill Flora; executive director of HKTB, Anthony Lau; chairman of HKTB, Peter Lam; deputy director-general of TTB, Wayne Liu; director of TTB New York, Thomas Chang; and director of TTB Los Angeles, Brad Shih
HONG Kong and Taiwan tourism are partnering for the first time to jointly promote themselves as twin destinations to the North American leisure market.
The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) and Taiwan Tourism Bureau (TTB) collaboration comes on the back of an expected 6.5 per cent increase in flight connections between the US and the two countries, as well as a prospective 4.5 per cent growth in arrivals.
“According to our survey, 92 per cent of visitors from the US arriving in Hong Kong would like to visit other destinations on the same trip,” said Anthony Lau, executive director, HKTB, adding that the trend of multi-destination travel in Asia has been gaining importance in recent years as tourists try to get the most out of each trip.
Wayne Liu, deputy director, TTB, is equally sanguine. “Data shows that in recent years US arrivals has been increasing steadily, and the growth was the fastest among all longhaul markets in the last year,” he said.
“This suggests that travelling to Taiwan has already sparked interest among American tourists.”
Currently, travel between Hong Kong and Taiwan takes about 80 minutes by air, and the two nations are connected by over 60 flights daily.
