HONG KONG – The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) reports a strong rebound for Meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) tourism in the first half of 2024.
Hong Kong received about 21 million visitors between January and June this year, about half of them stayed overnight.
Among overnight visitors, MICE arrivals accounted for 700,000 visitors, which has recovered to about 80% of the level recorded in the same period of 2018, making MICE the fastest recovering visitor segment in Hong Kong.
The MICE sector serves to attract high-yield visitors to the city on top of enhancing Hong Kong’s international image as the world’s meeting place.
Each overnight MICE visitor spent an average of HK$8,000 in town, which was about 20–30% higher than the average per-capita spending of all inbound travellers.
In 2023, MICE visitors were longer stayers, staying 3.7 nights on average, compared to the average of 3.2 nights for all overnight visitors.
MICE tourism helped attract more international tourists too, evident by the fact that half of the overnight MICE visitors came from international markets, compared to 25% of all overnight visitors.
Over 60 world congresses, region’s first trade shows and mega meetings, bringing in more than 180,000 inbound visitors
