HONG KONG, July 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Asia’s leading travel fair, ITE2026 incorporates the 40th ITE Leisure & 21st ITE MICE will be held from 11 to 14 June at Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre. It is held annually with first two days for trade and last two days open to the public.
The highly international ITE2025 successfully drew more Buyers & Trade Visitors “BTV” (+8.6%) and public visitors “PV” (+11.4%). 88% of 502 Exhibitors and 53% of 7626 BTV from abroad; 1/3 of 64 exhibiting countries and regions from outside Asia.
Geographically, over 70% of 7626 BTV from Greater Bay Area (GBA), which include Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Shenzhen etc in 2024 had a combined population of 87.4 million and GDP of US$ 2077.4 billion which about world’s 12th largest economy.
By sector, 45.7% of BTV were travel agents and 15.3% were corporation & MICE; 48% of 70212 PV with 3 or more outbound holidays and 91% keep / increase travel spending!
In ITE, Business Matching, a free service, where buyers seated by interested market while exhibitors moving around, that participants overstayed reflect BM been effective! Post-pandemic, ITE stops hosting buyers, instead subsidies buyers who anyway planned visit ITE. Months before opening, ITE actively promoted in Asia an international sourcing platform, working with travel associations, hosted delegations from Guangdong various cities result in more regional buyers & trade visitors.
Hong Kong outbound fully recovered in 2024: ranked world’s 14th largest by international tourism spending of US$28.9 billion and made 104.7 million departures, recovered to 107% and 111% of pre-epidemic levels respectively. In first 4 months of 2025, HK outbound grew 17%! Dec-2024, Trip.com reported HK residents prefer quality lodging and exploring niche destinations.
New in ITE2025 included Youth and Family Travel Pavilions for more Gen Z and Young Parent visitors; some 50 KOLs joined Networking and Grand Tour in trade days and held seminars in public days; and providing AI-simultaneous interpretation for Niche / New Destination seminars.
B2B program included free services like Business Matching though free-flow the main format, speaking opportunities, pre-show promotions etc. For B2C, exhibitors can apply for free seminar session of 25 minutes.
Business Matching participants overstayed! 135 trade and public seminars drew 9224 audiences! Plenty exhibitor visitor interactions in stand! Signs of good business.
Respectively, 50% and 23% of ITE’s PV had university and post-secondary education background, many can speak English, online booking and mobile payment are indeed widely used. Thus, directly selling to PV is feasible.
Organized by TKS Exhibition Services Ltd., ITE is strongly supported by Ministry of Culture and Tourism of P.R. China, other supporters include Hong Kong Tourism Board etc. Full article https://www.itehk.com/travelexpo/doc/press/ITE26_KickOff_15Jul25_en.pdf Expo’s website: www.itehk.com or inquiry via WhatsApp: +85294008444 Email: [email protected]
