The Peninsula Hong Kong. Credit: 123rf
FOLLOWING the initiative’s Singapore debut earlier this year, GTA has now launched its Strategic Partnership Program in Hong Kong with 21 home-grown and international hotels.
This 15-month programme aims to arrest the drastic fall in tourist arrivals in 1H2015, banding the hotels together to help them sell their rooms to travel consultants overseas. The initiative will focus on short and medium-haul markets such as Japan, South Korea, South-east Asia, Pacific and the Middle East.
GTA regional vice president of sales and marketing for Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, Daryl Lee, said: “We hope to lobby with private sector and stakeholders like Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) for a stronger voice from our side. Therefore, we’d try to link up every single market initiative the HKTB has to promote the city.
“We provide for aspects which (hotels) cannot manage by themselves. Obviously, every hotel has different strategies; for instance, Royal Garden Hotel wants more (South) Korean traffic so GTA would share data and intelligence like what (South) Korean tourists want.”
Participating hotels include all Regal Hotels International’s properties, Pentahotel Hong Kong, East Hong Kong, Cosmo Hotel Hong Kong, Cosmopolitan Hotel Hong Kong, Dorsett Mongkok, Royal Plaza, Sheraton Hong Kong Hotel & Towers, Royal Garden, W Hong Kong, Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, The Peninsula, as well as The Park Lane Hong Kong, a Pullman Hotel.
Lauding the new programme, Ken Ng, general manager-customer service, Lotus Tours, commented: “The number of hotels is just right and encompasses four to five-star properties (which are a good) fit for FITs. GTA’s massive network in Asia and Australia makes it a good distribution network.”
In November, the programme will extend to Dubai with 24 hotels lined up there. Lee added: “We target three destinations per year with Thailand in the pipeline.”
