Hong Kong will host its inaugural "Festival of Connoisseurs" from November 4 to 6 at AsiaWorld-Expo, showcasing an array of luxury goods such as private jets, supercars, yachts, jewellery, fine art, rare wines and haute cuisine.

The high-end exhibition features Asia’s first "citywide exhibition" model and will extend beyond AsiaWorld-Expo to landmark venues across Hong Kong when it expands to a full-scale format next year.

Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Algernon Yau said the event is the first to be funded by the government's HK$100 million initiative – outlined in this year's Budget – aimed at attracting large-scale international exhibitions with new concepts.

“It showcases to the world that Hong Kong is a good place, a platform, for the branded goods, either from the mainland or from overseas,” he said.

“So the impact and [economic] effect has to be evaluated later on after the event is introduced after November this year.

“But, for a normal exhibition, the spending power of an individual is around HK$9,300. I believe this kind of mega, high-profile event, with super yachts, super cars, the visitors will spend more in Hong Kong and will bring benefits to the Hong Kong economic development.”

Dan Ye, vice president at event organiser Informa Markets, said the event is expected to attract 3,000 high-end visitors during its soft launch in November, with that figure doubling for the full-scale launch next year.

He noted that while the airport area will serve as the main exhibition site, several iconic local landmarks are also set to host events in the future.

“We will choose different types of locations for the events, ranging from, for example, M+ Museum in the West Kowloon District, to the waterfront in Wan Chai and Central.”

“Also, we are exploring [having] yacht tours towards some of the islands on the Hong Kong coastline.”

The long-term vision, he stressed, is to create a yacht show at Skytopia – a new waterfront entertainment and commercial landmark under development near the airport – that will end up being Asia’s largest.



Edited by Tony Sabine