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Tourism Careers and Training
The tourism industry is one of the pillars of Hong Kong’s economy. The Government, the Hong Kong Tourism Board and the travel trade continue to work closely to grow the tourism industry, and create career opportunities.
Hong Kong is the most popular single city destination in Asia, with more than 29.59 million visitor arrivals in 2009. Among them 17.96 million arrivals were from the Chinese mainland, accounting for 61% of the total arrivals. Since the introduction of the Individual Visit Scheme in July 2003, 46 million Mainland residents have already travelled to Hong Kong as individual visitors as of December 2009. For the latest visitor arrivals data, please click here.
Hong Kong is also renowned as the Events Capital of Asia. A number of major events, such as the International Chinese New Year Parade, Hong Kong Shopping Festival, Hong Kong WinterFest, Cheung Chau Bun Festival, Hong Kong Sevens, Hong Kong International Film Festival and Hong Kong Arts Festival, help make the visitor experience in Hong Kong even more memorable.
It is not all leisure travel: Hong Kong is the region’s major business hub as well as the Asia’s premier MICE destination, as over 6,000 companies have established regional operations in Hong Kong. In 2009, Hong Kong played host to over 300 conventions and exhibitions and attended by 1.165 million MICE delegates. There are two purpose-built venues designed to cater for major exhibitions. AsiaWorld-Expo (AWE) is Asia’s only column-free, ground-level and airport-integrated venue with a 13,500-seat Arena and a 5,000-seat AsiaWorld-Summit. The expanded Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) offers state-of-the-art facilities with a flexible range of rental spaces covering over 91,000 sqm.
Hong Kong’s tourism industry embraces more than just incoming visitors. A significant section of the tourism industry is devoted to servicing outbound travel. In 2009, Hong Kong residents made 82 million trips, making outbound tourism an important contributor to the economy as well.
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