HKTB selects Winners for HK$ 15 Million Hong Kong Super Draw

The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) conducted the second and grand draws of the Hong Kong Super Draw today, selecting winners of stunning prizes worth over HK$15 million.

Performing the ceremony at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre were Secretary for Economic Development and Labour, The Hon Stephen Ip, GBS, JP; HKTB Chairman, The Hon Mrs Selina Chow, GBS, OBE, JP; Commissioner for Tourism, Eva Cheng, JP; and HKTB Executive Director, Clara Chong. Joined by representatives of  the prize sponsors, they drew the winners of the six grand prizes and 14 fabulous second draw prizes from close to one million entries.

Running from 1 August to 30 September 2003, the Hong Kong Super Draw was endorsed by the SAR Government's Economic Relaunch Strategy Group as part of the economic recovery efforts to promote businesses, tourism and local consumption. Its objective was to trigger citywide spending in the five most frequent areas of spending by visitors and residents, namely shopping, dining, entertainment, travel and transport, which are the core strengths of  Hong Kong's tourism industry. Besides providing a platform for Hong Kong's travel and tourism related sectors to rebuild their businesses, the event added further attraction to the special offers and activities of the HKTB's two-month long Hong Kong Welcomes You! promotion.

HKTB Chairman The Hon Mrs Selina Chow pointed out that the Super Draw, which stipulated a minimum spending of HK$300 per entry, had helped promote spending of at least HK$300 million with close to one million entries, providing a valuable business platform for the tourism-related sectors.

HKTB surveys on the Super Draw show that over 80 per cent of residents agreed that the event could help promote Hong Kong's tourism while 85 per cent agreed that the event was beneficial to the economy. "The recognition and strong support of the community are the driving force behind our tourism recovery," remarked Mrs Chow.

During the Hong Kong Welcomes You! promotion from mid-July to mid-September, the HKTB conducted extensive publicity worldwide to showcase the attractions of Hong Kong. The Board also strongly encouraged the travel trade to leverage on the mega-events and activities to package and promote Hong Kong. In addition, the Board invited over 1,500 trade and 520 media representatives to visit Hong Kong so that they could create word-of-mouth publicity among their customers and readers.

"Since July, we have seen a steady recovery of visitor arrivals, which returned to positive growth in August at 1.64 million arrivals. Our provisional figures show that this growth trend has continued into September as arrivals for the first 15 days of the month have surpassed 680,000, an increase of more than five per cent over the same period in 2002. We set a target of attracting two million visitors during the two-month Hong Kong Welcomes You! period and in fact, we reached it just five weeks after launching the promotion, with more than 3.1 million arrivals achieved for the full welcome period up to 15 September.

"To sustain the recovery momentum, we will continue our efforts on building long-term growth for Hong Kong as a destination through various mega-events and our new 'Hong Kong - Live it, Love it!' global advertising campaign," Mrs Chow said.

The Super Draw attracted unprecedented participation by organisations of the five key spending sectors. Over 10,000 merchants, 37 shopping malls, 100 hotels and guesthouses, 170 travel agencies, and 24 taxi associations representing 16,000 taxis signed up as participating merchants, along with major public transport operators.

The Super Draw was conducted in two bursts. The first draw, which consisted of entries received from 1 to 31 August, was held on 5 September. The second and grand lucky draws consisted of entries received from 1 August until 30 September including the Burst 1 winners. Today, winners were drawn for the 14 prizes of the second draw and those of the six grand prizes.