The two public days of ITE & ITE MICE this year, despite the financial crisis and swine flu, drew over 60000 visitors, up 12%! Besides, leading outbound travel agents present at the Expo reported good businesses! An onsite survey found around 90% of the respondents will increase or maintain their travel spending and frequency in the coming twelve months! These encouraging signs confirm that travel is very much part of Hong Kong residents’ life style.

Despite a relatively small population of some 7 million, Hong Kong is a leading source market. In 2007, residents of the city spent US$15.1 billion on international tourism, according to figures published by the UNWTO. Hong Kong thus ranked fourth in Asia after mainland China, Japan and South Korea. Last year, Hong Kong residents made 81.9 million departures, up 1.5%, and with 0.55 million arrivals, Hong Kong became Japan’s fifth major source market.