The event took place in Malaysia on 12 August, with Hong Kong announcing partnerships with AirAsia and travel agencies
Greater Bay Area targets multi-destination tourism from Southeast Asia
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China’s Greater Bay Area (GBA) staged a tourism promotion event in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur on 12 August in order to encourage Southeast Asian tourists to visit the region and hop between cities as part of a multi-destination trip.
Over 100 tourism professionals and media representatives attended the event, Greater Bay Area – Connecting Great Experiences, which was jointly organised by Guangdong’s Department of Culture and Tourism, the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) and the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO).
How was GBA tourism promoted at the event?
Senior officials from the three areas highlighted the GBA’s latest developments, the region’s connectivity and various tourism offerings.
Huang Xizhong of the Department of Culture and Tourism of Guangdong, noted that many distinctive cities “converged” in the GBA, with each one offering their own “unique charm” in areas such as innovative technology, history, culture and gastronomy.
Huang underscored the GBA’s transport connectivity, pointing out that it allowed visitors to travel across the region with ease.
[See more: Greater Bay Area promotional event targets Chinese state investment]
Meanwhile, HKTB executive director Anthony Lau introduced the new “Only in Hong Kong” international campaign, focusing on F&B offerings such as Chinesology, the city’s first halal-certified fine-dining Chinese restaurant, and Bar Leone, which was ranked no. 1 in the 2025 list of the World’s 50 Best Bars.
“Southeast Asia has always been a key source market for Hong Kong,” Lau said. At the event, the HKTB announced collaborations with AirAsia and seven travel agencies that will see them push out multi-destination GBA products for Malaysian tourists.
MGTO director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes also spoke at the event, promoting Macao’s mix of Eastern and Western culture, the city’s UNESCO World Heritage-listed Historic Centre, and the SAR’s status as a UNESCO City of Gastronomy.
Why is the GBA promoting multi-destination travel?
Efforts to promote GBA multi-destination travel come as the region continues to strengthen inter-city ties, while positioning itself as a major international tourism hub.
To this end, the 2019 Outline Development Plan for the GBA sets the goal of sharing “regional tourism resources among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, establishing the Greater Bay Area tourism brand…and jointly expanding tourism source markets.”
Significantly, Senna Fernandes noted in June 2026 that “46 percent of visitors who come to Macao actually engage in multi-destination travel.”
The idea of multi-destination travel in the GBA is not a new concept, as the tourism departments of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao first set up a mechanism to promote tourism in the region in 1993.
The three regions introduced a rotating-chairman mechanism in 2008 to further enhance collaboration and dialogue in the tourism sector. A more recent milestone was the launch of the multilingual Discover GBA website in 2023.
What other tourism promotion events has the GBA held this year?
A similar GBA promotional event was held in Shanghai on 26 July. Like the Malaysian event, it was a collaborative effort between the tourism departments of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, which was aimed at encouraging multi-destination travel in the GBA, albeit in the domestic market.
At the same time, the organisers were looking to deepen cultural and tourism cooperation with the Yangtze River Delta region, which include cities such as Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing and Ningbo.
Looking ahead, the GBA is planning to carry out promotions via major European travel platforms between September and November 2026, with a focus on the German, UK, French and Spanish tourism markets.
