Questex picked Hong Kong as the venue for its yearly hospitality investment event, its top executive said, six years after closing down its office in the city and consolidating its operations in Singapore.
The organiser of events focused on industries like hospitality, information technology (IT), cybersecurity and digital transformation had its regional headquarters in Hong Kong for 12 years, employing about 30 staff. That was until 2018, when it consolidated its operations in Singapore due to “slowing business”, said Alexi Khajavi, the president for hospitality, travel and wellness at the New York-based company.
“Our plan is to continue to organise the event in Hong Kong, and we see this as a … decade-long investment,” Khajavi said on the sidelines of the inaugural International Hospitality Investment Forum (IHIF) at the Regent Hong Kong hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui.
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“We still believe that Hong Kong is a hub for the Asia market. It attracts both northern Asia and Southeast Asia,” he said.
Hong Kong lost some of its allure as a top regional event venue following anti-government protests in 2019. That was followed by the Covid-19 pandemic, when the city imposed some of the world’s strictest measures to control the spread of the virus.
The city is, however, slowly reclaiming some of these events, including ones that temporarily shifted to Singapore.
Between January and June, Hong Kong received 700,000 overnight visitors who were participants in meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE), about 80 per cent of the level recorded in the same period in 2018, making it the fastest recovering visitor segment in Hong Kong, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB).
The board added that the MICE sector attracts big spenders and enhances Hong Kong’s international image as a premier meeting place. Each overnight MICE visitor spent an average of HK$8,000 (US$1,026) in the city, which was about 20 per cent to 30 per cent higher than the average per-capita spending of all inbound travellers.
In choosing Hong Kong, Khajavi said Questex considered a number of factors, including connectivity – the ease of travelling to a destination, both from within and outside the region – as well as hotel and venue infrastructure and audiovisual capabilities for meetings. Finally, he said, Questex was looking for a place where leisure, business, culture and cuisine are in abundance.
Khajavi said the group worked with the HKTB for the conference, but added that they were not given any incentives to do so.
Questex is holding other events in Hong Kong this year, including the CFO Innovation Summit and the CDO Innovation Forum.
As for reopening an office in Hong Kong, Khajavi said “never say never.”
“What’s important is that we have 520 delegates today from 27 countries and we have 185 hotel investors that currently hold over US$216 billion in hotel investments,” he said.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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