Destination marketing organization

A destination marketing organization (DMO) or convention and visitors bureau (CVB) is an organization that promotes a town, city, region, or country in order to increase the number of visitors. It promotes the development and marketing of a destination, focusing on convention sales, tourism marketing, and services.

Such organizations promote economic development of a destination by increasing visits from tourists and business travelers, which generates overnight lodging for a destination, visits to restaurants, and shopping revenues and are typically funded by taxes. Convention and visitor bureaus are the most important tourism marketing organizations in their respective tourist destinations, as they are directly responsible for marketing the destination brand through travel and tourism "product awareness" to visitors. DMOs produce billions of dollars in direct and indirect revenue and taxes for their destinations' economies with their marketing and sales expertise.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong (香港; "Fragrant Harbour"), officially Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, is an autonomous territory on the southern coast of China at the Pearl River Estuary and the South China Sea. Hong Kong is known for its skyline and deep natural harbour. It has a land area of 1104 km² and shares its northern border with Guangdong Province of Mainland China. With around 7.2 million inhabitants of various nationalities, Hong Kong is one of the world's most densely populated metropolises.

After the First Opium War (1839–42), Hong Kong became a British colony with the perpetual cession of Hong Kong Island, followed by Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and a 99-year lease of the New Territories from 1898. Hong Kong remained under British control for about a century until the Second World War, when Japan occupied the colony from December 1941 to August 1945. After the Surrender of Japan, the British resumed control. In the 1980s, negotiations between the United Kingdom and the China resulted in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, which provided for the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong on 30 June 1997. The territory became a special administrative region of China with a high degree of autonomy on 1 July 1997 under the principle of one country, two systems. Disputes over the perceived misapplication of this principle have contributed to popular protests, including the 2014 Umbrella Revolution.

Hong Kong Tourism Board

The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) (Traditional Chinese: 香港旅遊發展局) is a Government-subvented body founded in 2001. The Board replaced the Hong Kong Tourist Association (HKTA) (Traditional Chinese: 香港旅遊協會) established in 1957. It has 15 branch offices and 5 representative offices around the world, and its primary mission is to maximise the social and economic contribution that tourism makes to the community of Hong Kong, and consolidate the city's position as a desired destination. In fulfilling this, it works with the Government, travel industry and other partners to market and promote Hong Kong worldwide, improve the range and quality of visitor facilities and tourism service standards, and enhance the experiences of visitors once they have arrived.

Visitor centres

Tourism

Tourism is travel for pleasure; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. Tourism may be international, or within the traveler's country. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as being limited to holiday activity only ", as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".

Tourism can be domestic or international, and international tourism has both incoming and outgoing implications on a country's balance of payments. Today, tourism is a major source of income for many countries, and affects the economy of both the source and host countries, in some cases being of vital importance.

Tourism suffered as a result of a strong economic slowdown of the late-2000s recession, between the second half of 2008 and the end of 2009, and the outbreak of the H1N1 influenza virus, but slowly recovered. International tourism receipts (the travel item in the balance of payments) grew to US$1.03 trillion (€740 billion) in 2011, corresponding to an increase in real terms of 3.8% from 2010. International tourist arrivals surpassed the milestone of 1 billion tourists globally for the first time in 2012, the same year in which China became the largest spender in international tourism globally with US$102 billion, surpassing Germany and United States. China and emerging markets such as Russia and Brazil had significantly increased their spending over the previous decade.

Singapore Tourism Board

The Singapore Tourism Board (Abbreviation: STB; Malay: Lembaga Pelancongan Singapura; Chinese: 新加坡旅游局) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore, tasked to promote the country's tourism industry.

History

The board was first established in 1964 and was called the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board (Abbreviation: STPB; Chinese: 新加坡旅游促进局). In that year, there were 91,000 visitors. The primary task of STPB was to coordinate the efforts of hotels, airlines and travel agents to develop the fledgling tourism industry of the country.

Later, STPB began to initiate new marketing ideas to promote Singapore's image aboard. The board created the Merlion, a symbol based on a Singapore mythical legend, that became an icon of the Singapore destination. The board has also been providing travel agent licensing and tourist guide training.

STPB actively promoted the development of infrastructure, including the building of hotels and tourist attractions such as the Jurong Bird Park and Sentosa which is now a popular resort island for both tourists and local visitors. The board also markets the city as a convention venue and organises events to attract visitors.