HONG KONG BECOMES ‘CITY OF HERBALIFE’ AS 9,000 TOP DISTRIBUTORS JOIN EXTRAVAGANZA

United States-based nutritional products distributor Herbalife International has chosen Hong Kong to stage this year’s “Asia Extravaganza”, an incentive gathering and training session for its top distributors in the region that will bring over 9,000 people to the “City of Life”.

Starting today (25 May) at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, the three-day event will give Herbalife’s most successful independent distributors in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Korea the chance to share their success with one another, receive additional training and celebrate the opportunities offered by the company.

Among the guest speakers will be Christopher Pair, President & CEO of Herbalife International; Jack Reynolds, Chairman of the Herbalife Family Foundation (father of the company’s founder, the late Mark Hughes); and John and Susan Peterson, Herbalife’s World No 1 distributors for the fourth year running.

Herbalife will host an “Executive Extravaganza Dinner” at Café Deco this evening to reward their most successful distributors, and take over the entire Ocean Park tomorrow evening, 26 May, to hold a fun-filled “Top Producer Party” for all participants. The Herbalife International Family Foundation will also present a HK$100,000 donation in support of the Po Leung Kuk Child Sponsorship Scheme on 27 May.

This is the first time Hong Kong has been chosen to stage the Asian Extravaganza, although not the first time it has hosted a major Herbalife gathering: some 4,000 distributors from around the region participated in a Leadership Development Weekend in December 1998.

Mr John Purdy, the company’s Senior Vice-President of International Operations, said that Hong Kong provided an ideal venue for events such as these.

“Asia Extravaganza is our major annual event in this region. We look for a destination that is diverse, motivational and exciting for our top producers and will give them an ‘event-of-a-lifetime’ experience” he explained. “Hong Kong serves this purpose perfectly. In addition, it offers excellent convention and entertainment facilities on the large scale that we need, and is easily accessible both from the US and from other parts of Asia.”

“Hong Kong is also a very successful market for us,” Mr Purdy added. “Our local subsidiary was established in 1992 and has grown to be one of the biggest sellers of Herbalife products in the word, with more than 48,000 independent distributors and HK$406 million in retail sales last year.”

Incentive group travel — special tours and events provided by companies as a reward to successful staff or franchisees — is becoming an increasingly important market for the tourism industry worldwide, and the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) is working hard to bring as much of this business as possible to Hong Kong.

“Hong Kong is already a well established meeting place for corporate events,” notes the HKTB’s Executive Director, Ms Clara Chong. “We registered a 24.8% growth in corporate event visitors last year. These visitors are especially valuable to us as they tend to stay longer and spend more than the average. We are glad to see that a number of corporations have chosen Hong Kong for events with 1,000 or more participants in 2001.

“Hong Kong’s reputation as the most popular single travel destination in Asia, and the excellent facilities and support we can offer organisers, make it the perfect place for corporate events.”



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The Hong Kong Tourism Board was formerly known as the Hong Kong Tourist Association (HKTA). The change took effect from 1 April 2001 and reflects a change to the tourism body’s constitutional structure. Its primary responsibilities for marketing and promoting Hong Kong as a destination worldwide, and for providing visitors with assistance when they arrive, remain unchanged.