China expands its appeal to global business travelers

Hong Kong connects the Greater Bay Area with the world

Hong Kong is seeking to strengthen its position as a gateway between international business communities and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, using conventions, corporate meetings and incentive travel to connect overseas organizations with mainland enterprises.

Marilyn Tham, general manager of mega events development and advancement at the Hong Kong Tourism Board, said the city is drawing on its international connections, established convention facilities and proximity to Chinese mainland business centers to attract more international events.

"We position ourselves as the MICE hub in the Greater Bay Area," Tham said.

Hong Kong welcomed 2.51 million MICE visitors in 2025, up 7 percent year-on-year, according to official figures. Of those, 1.43 million stayed overnight, generating approximately HK$10.7 billion ($1.37 billion) in visitor spending.

Tham said corporate meetings and incentive travel accounted for slightly more than 60 percent of MICE visitors, making them the city's largest segment.

Under the "Meet Hong Kong, Meet GBA" campaign, the tourism board is promoting the city as a base from which international organizers can access the Greater Bay Area's industrial, technological and commercial resources.

The Greater Bay Area encompasses Hong Kong, Macao and nine cities in Guangdong province, forming a regional market of more than 86 million people.

Tham pointed to companies including Tencent, BYD and Ping An Insurance as examples of major enterprises whose presence in the region creates opportunities for international organizers seeking corporate sponsorships, business partnerships and industry participation.

Transportation links are central to that strategy.

The Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link connects Hong Kong's West Kowloon Station with Shenzhen in less than 20 minutes and Guangzhou in less than 50 minutes, while the 55-kilometer Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge provides a direct road connection across the Pearl River estuary.

Tham said these links allow organizers to combine conferences in Hong Kong with factory visits, corporate exchanges and cultural excursions in neighboring mainland cities.

The strategy also works in the opposite direction.

As more mainland professional associations seek to introduce their expertise and industries to international audiences, Hong Kong can serve as a platform for building overseas connections.

"They always will take Hong Kong as a springboard for them, as a first stop to connect them with the world," Tham said.

The Hong Kong Convention Ambassador Programme supports those efforts through professional networks spanning finance, technology, medicine, law, aviation, transportation, arts and culture.

Tham said the program currently has about 170 ambassadors, including approximately 30 from the Chinese mainland.

She also reported an approximately 40 percent increase in convention participants during the first eight months of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier.

Hong Kong is seeking to secure longer-term partnerships with international event organizers rather than relying solely on one-off conventions.

Among them is LEAP East, the Asian edition of a major technology event originating in Saudi Arabia, which made its Hong Kong debut in July.

The event attracted more than 25,000 participants, 55 percent of whom came from outside Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Tourism Board has secured an agreement for the city to remain its exclusive Asian host from 2027 through 2029.

Tham said such partnerships can strengthen Hong Kong's role as a regular meeting place for international technology companies, investors and industry professionals.

The city's technology sector is also attracting attention from overseas corporate event planners.

Vanina Damnotti, a project manager at Upper Agency in Argentina, which specializes in corporate events and experiential marketing, said her company sees opportunities to bring clients to Hong Kong.

"We have a lot of technology companies that are interested in Hong Kong," Damnotti said.

Vinicius Godinho Silva, an event agent with Sao Paulo-based Allmana in Brazil, also expressed interest in organizing corporate missions to Hong Kong, particularly for clients seeking exposure to emerging technologies and visits to leading technology companies.

For Tham, Hong Kong's competitive advantage lies in its ability to connect international business networks with the manufacturing, technological and commercial resources of the Greater Bay Area.

Turning international interest into business

For Chinese tourism businesses, international trade shows provide an important platform for developing relationships with overseas buyers and converting interest in China into future meetings and incentive travel programs.

Wu Dawei, director of the China National Tourist Office in Los Angeles, said Chinese exhibitors at IMEX America 2026 held extensive business discussions with international buyers, producing encouraging results.

According to Wu, several exhibitors secured expressions of interest in cooperation for 2027 and 2028, covering international conferences, incentive travel and business events in sectors including construction, finance and esports.

The prospective buyers came from countries including the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina and Germany.

"These cooperation intentions not only lay a solid foundation for the expansion of inbound MICE tourism to China over the next two years, but also reflect a broader trend," Wu said.

He described that trend as a shift toward more diverse source markets, increasingly specialized industry requirements and longer-term project partnerships.

Feld of WildChina said attending IMEX America is particularly valuable for developing relationships in Latin America and other markets where personal connections play an important role in business decisions.

He said face-to-face meetings allow companies to build trust and establish relationships that are difficult to develop through emails or telephone conversations alone.

The importance of personal exchanges also extends beyond commercial tourism.

Ulisses Araujo, a professor at the School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities at the University of Sao Paulo and president of the PAN-PBL association, which promotes problem-based and active learning methodologies, said conferences can help expand educational exchanges between Brazil and China.

"China is a place that everyone wants to know," Araujo said.

He said the University of Sao Paulo is offering a course about education in China taught by Chinese scholars, reflecting students' interest in learning more about the country's culture and educational development.

Araujo said international conferences could provide opportunities for academic exchanges and help attract sponsorships to offset the relatively high cost of travel between Brazil and China.

The exhibition also demonstrated how technology is reshaping the events industry itself, creating opportunities for cooperation between Chinese and US companies.

At the San Jose destination booth, a humanoid robot demonstrated how artificial intelligence could help visitors obtain information about transportation, registration and local services.

"So, almost an extension of our team," said Dione Williams, director of sales and destination services at Team San Jose, describing how the robot could assist event staff in answering visitors' questions.

Rosie Gao, product designer at IntBot, said her company works with Chinese robotics hardware suppliers while developing technology for applications in hotels, airports and trade exhibitions.

"Our hardware suppliers are based in China," Gao said.

She said China's capabilities in robotics hardware and motion control complement US strengths in speech recognition and conversational artificial intelligence, creating opportunities for cross-border cooperation.

For China's MICE industry, the next stage of international growth will depend not only on the scale of its exhibition facilities or the appeal of its destinations, but also on its ability to provide accessible services, meaningful professional exchanges and experiences tailored to the needs of international visitors.

Feld said the challenge is to turn growing curiosity about China into programs that deliver lasting value.

"China has a compelling story to share," he said. "The next opportunity is to make the experience of discovering it as convincing as the story itself."