Hong Kong Tourism Board to woo overnight big spenders, diversify visitor mix

2026.03.18 11:20 Hong Kong will bring down the curtain on the two-decade-old “A Symphony of Lights” and replace it with an upgraded version across various districts. Photo: Sam Tsang The Hong Kong Tourism Board will allocate three-quarters of its resources to overseas markets this year in a strategic shift aimed at diversifying visitor demographics and attracting more overnight high spenders to the city. The board also revealed on Wednesday that it would launch a new global campaign by the end of April to promote Hong Kong as a unique world city through social media, advertisements on regional broadcasters and billboards in selected countries. “It is not an easy task to convince those visitors who only plan for a day trip to Hong Kong to stay overnight,” the board’s executive director Anthony Lau Chun-hon conceded, referring to tourists coming from nearby mainland Chinese cities. “If so, why don’t we focus on attracting more visitors from farther away or overseas?” Unveiling the board’s work plan for this year, Lau said the government-subvented body would adjust its resource allocation by placing 75 per cent of the money towards overseas markets. Besides major markets, the board will step up efforts in Asean countries, such as Vietnam and Cambodia, the Middle East and India, alongside other potential European markets like Italy and Spain. The remaining 25 per cent of resources would go to the mainland market but focus on non-Guangdong cities in a bid to boost the proportion of overnight visitors, he said. The government has earmarked HK$1.66 billion (US$212 million) in funding for the Tourism Board in this year’s budget, a 35 per cent increase from the previous year. It would also bring down the curtain on the two-decade-old “A Symphony of Lights” and replace it with an upgraded version across various districts. Tourism Board chairman Peter Lam Kin-ngok said that the new project comprised of two types of shows – immersive projections at various places specifically f

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