Russian market sixth in the world, Hong Kong popular

London : Russia ranks sixth in the world in the field of MICE, the research conducted by Euromonitor International shows. This survey was conducted for the international tourism exhibition in London, World Travel Market. Thus, in 2011, about 2 million overseas visitors attended various business events, which were held in Russia, according to Euromonitor (information is provided by portal hosteltur.com).

China became the number one country in the world in terms of MICE industry development (business meetings, incentives, organizing conferences and corporate events), it received about 7.9 million guests in 2011. France ranks second (5 million), Italy- third (about 3.5 million). The top 10 most successful countries in business tourism are also Germany, Spain, Turkey, Malaysia, Hong Kong and the UK.At the same time, the U.S. continues to be the world leader in terms of tourist expenditure in the MICE segment.

According to Euromonitor International forecasts, the number of business travelers will increase substantially by 2016. It is assumed that China will receive additionally about 7.1 million business visitors, the U.S. – 3.6 million, Turkey and Saudi Arabia – 2 million, India and Morocco – 1.5 million, Singapore – 1.4 million , Indonesia and the UAE – 1.3 million during this period. Russian MICE market by 2016 is expected to receive additionally 1.3 million visitors.

Similarly ,arrivals from Russia to Hong Kong have increased by 54.7% compared to other countries.The Hong Kong Tourism Board has published inbound tourism statistics. Russia has shown the most impressive growth of tourist flow and now ranks fourth among the European countries in terms of number of tourists arriving in Hong Kong. While many other key tourism markets have demonstrated a negative dynamics, our country has made a breakthrough with 54.7%, which certainly reflects the increasing interest of Russians in Hong Kong as a promising and highly competitive tourist destination.

In total, Hong Kong received 4 million 369 thousand 786 people in July 2012, which is 14 % increase compared to the same period last year. In the first 7 months of the year overall foreign tourist flow into Hong Kong amounted to 26 million 692 thousand 540 people.

In July more than half of all visitors (50.7%) spent in the “city of the future” and its surrounding areas more than one night, and the total number of overnight guests in Hong Kong increased by 3.6%.

According to the Hong Kong Tourism Board, in the first two quarters of 2012 most visitors came to the region from Mainland China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. Also Hong Kong received guests from the U.S., Canada and European countries: the United Kingdom, France and Germany.Source: Atours