Sky Blue Vickie Attends Hong Kong’s Year of the Dog Appreciation Reception and is Blown Away by the Destination’s Visitor and Business Figures

Last week I found myself sashaying along to Vancouver’s Law Courts Inn to celebrate the Year of the Dog with the Hong Kong Tourism Board and the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office.

And if the figures being bandied around by Michael Lim, director for the HKTB for Canada and Central & South America, and Florence Tsang, acting director of the HKETO, are anything to go by – the Year of the Dog is set to be an amazingly successful one for Hong Kong tourism and business.

Hong Kong witnessed 3.8 percent economic growth last year and is set for similar growth for 2018, according to Tsang.

There are plenty of projects in the pipeline to build on this growth, such as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, which will provide a tonne of new business opportunities when it connects nine cities with a combined population of some 66 million people when it opens this summer.

This means that Hong Kong will be in an unrivalled position as THE gateway for overseas enterprises into mainland China.

The numbers revealed that evening by the HKTB were similarly strong, with Lim stating that last year the destination attracted some 58 million visitors – 370,000 of whom were Canadians.

The destination is set also to add some 30 hotels (that’s 6,000 rooms) to its accommodation line-up by the end of this year.

The tourist board’s ‘Best of All, It’s Hong Kong’ global brand campaign is clearly striking a chord. In the Canadian market, the campaign focuses on five signature Hong Kong experiences: Culture, Dining, Attractions, Festivals and the Great Outdoors.

Long may its success continue. Kung Hei Fat Choi!