ITE & ITE MICE 2008 -
New Developments Enhance Attractiveness of the Travel Expo

That ITE & ITE MICE have a highly international profile of exhibitors has always been its key attraction, a result of which is the Travel Expo being largely organized by geography. However, conscientious efforts in recent years to beef up the overall attractiveness by highlighting travel sectors or themes will start producing concrete developments this year. These include a greater presence of cruise, hot spring & spa, Hong Kong travel agents, and a stronger support from chambers of commerce and event industry associations in the region of Greater Pearl River Delta.

We are honored that Mr. Donald Tsang, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR Government, has sent his Message to welcome all participants of ITE and ITE MICE this year. This is the fourth consecutive year that the Chief Executive has extended his warm welcome.

For the first time there will be a cruise education corner in the Travel Expo this year to provide background information suitable to trade and travelers. This will likely be the first of such attempt in Asia, where popularity of cruise travel has been growing fast in recent years. In fact, Hong Kong is to build a new cruise terminal, and nearly 6000 local residents took cruise holiday during the Lunar New Year holiday this year.

Extensive consultations with the cruise industry have been held to ensure relevancy of the education corner. In a specially designed stand, contents for display will include a world map depicting major cruise markets / destinations, etiquettes, activities on board, on-shore excursion, how can travel agents help, Hong Kong as a cruise hub, and locations of cruise exhibitor stands presented in ITE & ITE MICE. Separate cruise seminars respectively for trade and consumers are also under planning.

Sponsored by some local associations of travel agents, the Hong Kong Travel Agents Zone is to facilitate exhibitors there to expand their exchanges and business with their overseas counterparts during the trade days, and to promote sales of their products and services to travelers during the public days. Chances are some travel agent exhibitors there will promote special offers available only during ITE & ITE MICE this year.

To project a stronger image for easy recognition, a newly designed standard booth has been devised for the Travel Agent Zone and there will also be signage at different parts of the Travel Expo. In addition, exhibitors in the Zone will be offered encouragements to jointly promote ITE & ITE MICE in their advertisements in local newspapers and magazines.

Both the cruise education corner and the Travel Agent Zone will be located in halls 2 just before the onsite seminar rooms, while the Hong Kong pavilion organized by the Hong Kong Tourism Board will remain in halls 1.

So far, a total of 5 trade associations or chambers of commerce in the region of Greater Pearl River Delta have formally pledged supports to ITE and/or ITE MICE. They include the Hong Kong Exhibition & Convention Industry Association, Macau Convention & Exhibition Association, the China Council for Promotion of International Travel (CCPIT) / International Chambers of Commerce in Dongguan and Shenzhen, and last but not the least, the Hong Kong Chinese Enterprises Association (HKCEA).
Members of the Hong Kong Chinese Enterprises Association (HKCEA) include companies set up in Hong Kong by major state-owned, provincial, municipal and private enterprises from mainland China. The Association has now around 1000 members grouped into some twenty business sectors and there is also a sub-association of Guangdong enterprises.

As supporter, these associations will promote and organize member enterprises to visit the Expo and attend related activities. ITE MICE & ITE will also be advertised in business dailies, portals and magazines, and official journals and websites of other trade associations and professional bodies.
Since the launching of ITE MICE two years ago with its own visitor promotion, there has been significant growth in the number of corporate visitors, to 2700 during trade days last year from 900 in 2005. The concurrent holding of ITE MICE, which focuses on business and MICE travel, with the long established ITE for synergy is a first and so far the only such arrangement in Asia.

Invitations for pre-registration of hosted buyers and trade visitors were out some one month ago with good responses. Besides individual invitations, a number of travel trade associations in the region will organize buyer delegations or help promoting buyers and trade visitors. They include the Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI), Thai Travel Agents Association (TAA), National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (NATAS), The Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agent (MATTA), and the Hong Kong Inbound Travel Association (HKITA). Hosted Buyer Program of the Expo is sponsored by the Official Air, Cathay and DragonAir, and the Official Rail, the Guangzhou-Kowloon -Through Train.

ITE MICE and ITE are supported by China National Tourism Administration, Hong Kong Tourism Board, Macau Government Tourist Office and Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong. ITE MICE08, The 3rd MICE, Business & Incentive Travel Expo will be held from June 12 to 14 this year at hall 2B of the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Center (HKCEC), while the concurrent ITE08, The 22nd International Travel Expo Hong Kong will be held from June 12 to 15 at halls 1A, B & C and hall 2A of HKCEC.

For more details, please visit official websites of www.itehk.com and www.itehkmice.com. For exhibiting or enquiry, please send email to travel@tkshk.com or by fax to 852 3520 1500. For pre-registration / visiting, plase send email to buyer@tkshk.com