Key features

Hong Kong Gifts & Premium Fair had some fascinating features, which elevated its standards to a high degree of splendor. The fair highlighted a wide range of products, including fashion jewellery and accessories, watches and clocks, consumer electronics, silverware, ceramic gifts, paper and packaging, travel goods, gifts for ladies and children, corporate and advertising gifts and Christmas decoratives.

The HKTDC had also organised 95 buying missions from 65 countries and regions, arranging for the visits of 6,700 key buyers. Major importers and leading chain and department stores including the likes of Hallmark, Walt Disney and Z Gallerie, Zellers, Birks & Mayors, Galeries Lafayette, the SEB group, Karstadt Warenhaus, Bals Corp and Kohnan Soji were a part of that group.

The most striking aspect of the fair was the special zones, which were set up for making sourcing comfortable and unique. The Hall of Fine Designs, a premier section devoted to up market and exquisite gift items showcased 51 design-led companies and their elegant collections. This section reflected the premium nature of the products. Kid's World presented a broad range of children's gift items, from traditional to high-tech. Decorative and functional items were also on offer in the Ladies' Gifts & Premium section which consisted of 19 exhibitors, while silver fragrance ware, jewellery and jewellery boxes, as well as desk sets and accessories were a part of the Silverware zone, which comprised of 26 participants.

To provide the latest trends of the global market to SME's, the organisers arranged for a seminar, in which, renowned industry journalists were invited to share their expert views of the latest market trends and consumer behaviour of the Gifts industry in different countries. Participants also had the pleasure of sharing their expertise and experience with the speakers and other industry players during the seminar.

Classy exhibits making all the difference

Some of the products exhibited at the fair were spectacular to say the least. The list included the likes of LED flickers which lights like real candle flame and coloured LED string lights making night magic to high-quality silver plated items, flawless wooden frames, trays and splendid photo frames. The variety of products also made Mr. Jeffrey Lam say with elation that, "Hong Kong is a major sourcing centre for the global giftware industry." Such products made all the difference at the end of the day to the fair from being a successful one to a vastly successful one. Also, a few exhibitors also demonstrated their newly launched products, thus showcasing the exclusivity and the changing patterns of the gift industry.

Visitor's profile

The fair once again proved to be the ideal one for buyers from all across the globe. This year, the fair witnessed 50,497 visitors out of which 26,436 were overseas buyers and 24,061 were the local ones. Going by these figures, the rising popularity and the visitor's interest in the mega event is undoubtedly phenomenal. With the fair now becoming the No. 1 in the world, one can expect those figures to rise, come 2009. Top 10 visiting foreign countries included the Chinese mainland, USA, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, United Kingdom, Germany, Republic of Korea, France and Singapore.

As far as the Indian visitors are concerned, the fair definitely was a breakthrough for a large no. of them and their experience from this year's event is bound to elevate their interest for next year's event.

Hong Kong - The gifting powerhouse

One of the key reasons for the enormous success that the fair achieved was the participation of a wide range of exhibitors from all over the world. Hong Kong, the host of the fair was itself responsible for the outstanding response that the fair received. That was possible because Hong Kong has a reputation for being the major sourcing centre for the global giftware industry in terms of quality, efficiency and innovation. Moreover, last year, Hong Kong's gifts and premium exports increased two per cent, to US$21.3 billion (HK$166.4 billion). These figures only underline the country's ability to gauge market trends and meet the needs of the buyers from the world over.

Aftermath of the fair

The success of the 23rd Hong Kong Gifts & Premium Fair is bound to generate more interest from all across the globe, thus making the gifts & accessories industry across the globe, stronger, bigger and better. Product wise, the fair has brought together the widest bunch of novelty, innovation and creativity together and that has already generated interested and speculation about the standards of next year's event. As far as the magnitude of next year's event goes, 10,000 sq. metres of space is likely to be added with approximately 1,000 more booths expected to be sold off. Also, many other potential buyers and exhibitors will be waiting with bated breath for the next edition of the fair, thus creating more opportunities and further brightening the industry.