Italy, key country at the Vinexpo Hong Kong 2016

Seventh edition for the Vinexpo Hong Kong, the most important wine fair in Asia

This year’s edition of Vinexpo Hong Kong took place from May 24^th to May 26^th 2016 in the city’s Convention Centre and once again brought together producers, merchants and distributors operating in the wine business from all over the world, aiming at strengthening their presence in the growing Asia Pacific markets. Around 1,300 exhibitors from more than 35 countries presented a huge selection of wines and spirits to almost 17k industry professionals coming from 24 different nations. Hong Kong confirmed itself as a key gateway for Asian markets, providing the ideal hub for the wine and spirits sector in Asia: the trade-only fair gave the operators the possibility to explore and consider not only the Chinese market, but also the Japanese and other minor ones. A must-attend event which gave foreign businesses the opportunity to grow and promote themselves in Asia, a continent that currently already accounts for 11% of global consumption in wine and 63% in spirits.

Italy was this year’s “guest of honor”: visitors were able to meet Italian wine producers, sample a vast range of Italian wines and explore the country’s indigenous grape varieties. More than 250 producers from Piedmont to Sicily joined the Vinexpo, aiming to improve Italy’s position as an exporter in the Asiatic markets, since it is currently the world’s biggest exporter but it counts Asia as only its fifth biggest market and China as its sixth. Italian producers benefited from a central location within the exhibition, while a series of tastings and talks helped shedding some insight on the country’s wine and spirits.

SocialMeterAnlaysis monitored Twitter conversations on the event from May 19^th to June 1^st, through the hashtag #vinexpohk and official account @vinexpo, picking up almost 3000 tweets for 1178 users involved, with a tweet peak on May 24^th from 8Am to 9 AM. Users were mainly from United States, France, Spain and Italy. Top users during the considered period of time were @italyinhongkong, official account of the Consulate General of Italy in Hong Kong, @citadellesduvin, the official profile for the Citadelles du Vin competition and @iswacademy, the account of the Italian Signature Wines Academy. The most mentioned profiles, on the other hand, were @fev_vino, official account of the Federación Española del Vino, again @italyinhongkong, followed by @aveccalmels, supporting profile to the French politician Virginie Calmels.