We work very closely with the Hong Kong Tourism Board on their many campaigns, both locally and internationally. This year we launched the “My Hong Kong Guide” app for web, digital devices and Facebook, created to capture experiences of travellers to Hong Kong while managing their travel itineraries, offering suggestions of places of interest and having the ability to add friends and engage with other travelers based on interest, travel period and personal blogs.
Planning & Execution
This fully functional three-pronged digital approach truly frees a traveler when visiting Hong Kong because all information is easily accessible right at their fingertips. Our approach was always to put the ability in the visitor’s hands and let them personalize their travel planning, schedule and much more, on the go while having the ability to receive new promotions, events and activities to the minute from the Hong Kong Tourism Board and their peers.
We chose to use cloud-based technology to support the infrastructure of My Hong Kong Guide for a few reasons. It allows us to increase the capacity of localized servers within a short period of time, especially when dealing with largescale campaigns across countries as is the case with this launch. Being on an integrated platform allows updates on individual’s “My Hong Kong Guide” to sync automatically ensuring that no update is lost and all content is consistent through the three platforms.
The official launch began in July and ran through to December 2014. This is the world’s first intelligent travel solution for NTOs (National Travel Organization) and looks to be a true game changer in the travel & tourism industry for all countries.
Effectiveness / Results
• From Mar-Aug, My Hong Kong Guide App has reached more than 24,440 downloads, around 23,000 registration (for full functions) and more than 7,660 guides have been created by registrants. It shows users are well engaged with the platform.
• My Hong Kong Guide App was featured as Best New App in iTunes Homepage in April 2014.
• NTOs used the app to promote attractions as destination’s products with official or authoritative sources that’s pre-defined by NTOs themselves. Shifting from products to experience, HKTB has evolved, focusing more on the description and sharing of experiences, producing a more authentic and engaging style of communications. My Hong Kong Guide is community-driven platform for authentic experiences that today’s travelers are looking for. This also opens a lot more opportunities for more activation campaigns in future.