Hong Kong hosts SITE delegates for first time

By Ben Moore HONG KONG More than 230 delegates from around the world attended the Society of Incentive Travel Executives (SITE) 2000 International Conference at The Regent hotel in Hong Kong from December 3-7. It was the first time the four-day event, which combined keynote conference addresses with smaller breakout sessions, had been held in Hong Kong. Although the majority of delegates (52%) were from North America, the largest Asia Pacific delegation came from hosts Hong Kong, followed by Singapore and China. Attendees from the Asia Pacific region represented 17% of all delegates. The largest discipline was destination management companies (40%) followed by incentive houses and hotels. Support for the breakout sessions was universal. However, many were disappointed by some of the keynote speakers. Criticism included a lack of relevance of talks to the incentive industry and an over-reliance on US cultural examples. "There were a lot of suppliers rather than meeting planners and incentive buyers," said The Peninsula Hong Kong director of marketing Ms Maria Sung. "The networking and opportunity to showcase Hong Kong to the incentive industry was welcome," said Hong Kong Tourist Association general manager tourism and convention marketing Ms Ellen Kwan.