One of the major events of Hong Kong 2025, the four-day 39th Hong Kong International Tourism Exhibition and the 20th Hong Kong Business Awards Tourism Exhibition, opened on the 12th at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. About 500 exhibitors from over 60 countries and regions actively promoted their unique features and explored new tourism trends at the exhibition. The theme of this exhibition is "From Recovery to Development". At the event, exhibitors brought the latest tourism products and set up rich interactive activities to showcase local culture, including mascot card slots and workshop experiences. To attract more young tourists and parents to participate, this year we have set up two exhibition areas, "Youth/Z Generation Tourism" and "Family Tourism", to encourage the younger generation to explore the possibilities and significance of tourism from a new perspective. During the exhibition, over 110 events will be held, including exhibitor promotion meetings, seminars, and lectures. The Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, Regina Ip, stated in her opening speech that there will be approximately 45 million visitors to Hong Kong in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 31%. This strong rebound fully demonstrates the resilience of Hong Kong's tourism industry and its charm as a world-class tourist destination. About 20 million visitors visited Hong Kong in the first five months of 2025, a year-on-year increase of 12%. Hong Kong is making every effort to consolidate traditional tourism resources while exploring new ones. It is expected that there will be approximately 49 million visitors to Hong Kong in 2025, a year-on-year increase of about 10%. At the exhibition site, exhibitors showcased the latest characteristic tourist routes and had professionals answer related questions. On the afternoon of the 12th, the Asian Tourism Exchange Center held a "Hello! China" policy briefing on inbound tourism to mainland China, introducing various aspects such as visa processing, entry procedures, and tourism products, aiming to attract more foreign tourists from Hong Kong and Macao to travel to mainland China and further enhance Hong Kong's important role as a "multi destination" tourism hub. Zhang Dong, Director of the Asian Tourism Exchange Center, stated that the holding of this briefing has provided a convenient communication bridge for foreign tourists from Hong Kong and Macao to travel to mainland China. The Asian Tourism Exchange Center will continue to work together with various forces to serve the cooperation and exchange of culture and tourism between the mainland and Hong Kong and Macao, and assist in the construction of Hong Kong's "one-stop" hub. According to the organizers, the exhibition is limited to industry professionals for the first two days and will be open to the public for the following two days. It is expected to attract about 70000 visitors in four days. (New Society)