Hong Kong tourism lures VisitBritain marketer

VisitBritain marketer Simon Mills has joined the Hong Kong Tourist Board (HKTB) as director of Northern Europe.

In his new role, based at the HKTB offices in London, he will be responsible for promoting Hong Kong in the African and Middle Eastern markets as well as Europe.

Mills has been with the British tourist board since 1994 and was most recently regional marketing manager for Europe.

Last month, HKTB appointed Grey Hong Kong to its global advertising account, covering 18 markets around the world, following a pitch against Publicis, Saatchi & Saatchi and DDB.

Grey takes over from DraftFCB, which resigned the business late last year, after nine years. MindShare handles media planning and buying. The HKTB marketing budget is HK$331m (£21.5m).

Hong Kong is hosting the equestrian events in this year’s Olympic Games, but has yet to see any surge in visitor numbers. It has been reported that only half the hotel rooms available in the city during the Olympics are booked up. But HKTB says it confident the event will be a success.

Meanwhile, VisitBritain has appointed Nathan Alemany as manager of Event-Britain, which promotes the UK as a destination for exhibitions, conferences and cultural and sporting events.

Alemany joins from Thistle Hotels in Liverpool and was previously tourism conference manager for the Mersey Partnership, the organisation that markets Liverpool.