<div id="readability-page-1">The Hong Kong Tourism Board invited more than 1,700 influencers from around the world to the city between 2023 and last year, with the internet personalities having a combined following exceeding 1.6 billion. Responding to an inquiry from lawmaker Chan Hoi-yan, the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau said the board had invited 1,730 influencers to come to the city over two years, with itineraries tailored to their markets and audiences. “In 2026-27, [the board] will continue to develop themed promotional content aligned with market trends, catering to the interests and needs of target visitor segments across different markets,” Vivian Sum Fong-kwang, permanent secretary for culture, sports and tourism, said in her reply. The bureau’s letter put the combined following of the influencers at more than 1.6 billion. The examples cited by the bureau showed the influencers invited to film their visits to the city covered both long-haul and short-haul tourist markets, such as the United States, Europe, mainland China and the rest of Asia. These included Senegalese-Italian TikTok influencer Khaby Lame, also known as “Speechless Brother”, who has more than 240 million followers on TikTok. Lame, who is the world’s most-followed TikTok influencer, visited Hong Kong in November last year for three days. He attended the Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance and tried the dance, toured a fishing village in Tai O and joined a Cantopop disco party. The influencer also sampled stir-fried local dishes at a dai pai dong in Sham Shui Po and enjoyed British-style afternoon tea at a historic five-star hotel, as well as posing for photos outside Kai Tak Sports Park’s main stadium with an LED wall displaying the greeting “Hong Kong Welcomes Khaby &amp; You”. Idols Mingyu and Vernon from South Korean boy band Seventeen also had a similar itinerary of local delicacies and nightlife during their trip in September last year. The bureau said the two K-pop stars had gone sightseeing on a junk boat, tried authentic local dishes and made cocktails with mixologists. Mingyu had posted an Instagram post that had racked up 2.5 million likes and featured photos of Victoria Harbour at night and local dai pai dong-style dishes.  Besides local gourmet and cultural events, the board had invited American YouTuber duo Stokes Twins to visit the city’s theme parks and a luxury hotel. The pair have 139 million subscribers on the video-sharing platform. Brothers Alan and Alex Stokes, who are the second most-followed American YouTubers on the platform, were invited to film in Hong Kong for their first travel vlog in Asia. During the trip, the pair visited Hong Kong Disneyland, played football at Kai Tak Sports Park and saw giant pandas Jia Jia and De De at Ocean Park. Their travel vlog, published in July last year, has accumulated more than 58 million views on YouTube. To promote the city to the mainland market, the board invited influencer Wang Guo’er, who has 3.8 million followers on Douyin, and Grandpagu, who has 1.3 million followers on WeChat, to participate in Chinese New Year festivities and enjoy the city’s arts and cultural offerings. Grandpagu, whose content centres around his tours of museum exhibitions around the world, made a post about the city’s Art March events last year. He posted photos taken on walks across various districts as well as a video about his visit to the Hong Kong Museum of Art to view an exhibition on French impressionist painters Renoir and Cezanne, as well as exhibitions at the Hong Kong Palace Museum. The video has racked up more than 2,500 likes and was shared over 3,600 times.  Grandpagu also posted another video of a walk from Hong Kong’s dense Nathan Road to Victoria Harbour a month later in April last year, with the clip shared more than 3,500 times and liked over 2,900 times. But the board said it could not tally the expenditure of inviting these influencers and organising their trips, as such promotion work was incorporated into its overall marketing strategy. In a separate response to lawmaker Rock Chen Chung-nin’s inquiry, the bureau provided a breakdown of the board’s HK$1.32 billion (US$168 million) allocated budget for the 2026-27 financial year. The largest proportion of the budget, standing at HK$482 million or 37 per cent, would be spent on boosting mega-events in the city. The board planned to use the money to scale up flagship events, add celebratory elements for the 30th anniversary of the city’s return to Chinese sovereignty next year, as well as ramp up promotions, launch a new light show to replace the “Symphony of Lights” and revamp thematic travel guides. The second-largest planned expenditure was the allocation of HK$343 million, or 36 per cent of the total budget, on diversifying visitor source market investments and developing new types of tourism to attract high-value overnight visitors. Another HK$198 million will go towards private sector collaborations, while HK$297 million will be spent on campaigns and media partnerships to promote the city. </div>

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<p>The Hong Kong Tourism Board invited 1,730 influencers with a combined following of over 1.6 billion to promote the city between 2023 and last year. The board plans to continue developing themed promotional content for target visitor segments in 2026-27. Notable influencers included TikTok star Khaby Lame and K-pop idols Mingyu and Vernon from Seventeen, who showcased local culture and cuisine during their visits. The board's budget for 2026-27 is HK$1.32 billion, focusing on mega-events and diversifying tourism markets.</p>

Tourism Board invited 1,730 influencers with 1.6 billion followers over 2 years