Hong Kong achieves double digit growth in July 2012-08-29

Hong Kong growth in tourism does not give signs of slowdown. The territory released its latest figures showing that tourism jumped by 13.8% in July.

HONG KONG – The Hong Kong Tourism Board announced that visitor arrivals to Hong Kong in July reached 4,369,786, a year-on-year increase of 13.8%. However, economic difficulties in long haul markets were reflected in the negative evolution of those markets in July. Total arrivals from long-haul markets declined however by 5.4%.

Cumulatively, for the first seven months of 2012, total arrivals rose 15.2% to 26,692,54 while long-haul markets still managed to progress slightly at 1.5% to reach 2.73 million arrivals. Among the best performing long-haul markets during the first seven months are Russia (+ 54.7%) and the UK (+6.4%) while the most severe declines occurred for the Middle East (-7.7%) and the Netherlands (-4.2%). In regional markets, disappointing performances were recorded for Vietnam (-16.2%), India (-15.2%) and Taiwan (-5.8%).

Of all visitor arrivals in July, over 2.21 million or 50.7% were overnight arrivals, 3.6% more than in the same month last year. The remaining 49.3% (over 2.15 million) were same-day, in-town arrivals, whose number increased 26.7% over last year.

In the first seven months of 2012, overnight arrivals and same-day, in-town arrivals accounted for 49.5% (over 13.20 million) and 50.5% (almost 13.49 million) of total cumulative arrivals respectively.

The table below summarises the arrivals figures from the various market regions:

	January to July		July
Market Region	2012	Vs. 2011	2012	Vs 2011
*Long-haul Markets*	2,734,729	+1.5%	363,431	-5.4%
The Americas	1,042,550	+0.5%	143,604	-4.9%
Europe, Africa & the Middle East	1,264,652	+3.2%	162,054	-5.1%
Australia, New Zealand & South Pacific	427,527	-1.3%	57,773	-7.4%
Short-haul Markets (excl. Mainland China)*	5,110,659	+0.2%	741,970	-4.6%
North Asia	1,380,576	+7.4%	199,823	+5.7%
South & Southeast Asia	2,062,533	-1.0%	261,583	-11.6%
Taiwan	1,196,702	-5.8%	203,164	-6.2%
Mainland China**	18,847,152	+22.6%	3,264,385	+21.9%
Total*	26,692,540	+15.2%	4,369,786	+13.8%

(Source: HKTB)

* Figure includes arrivals from the Macau SAR
** In July, 66.3% (over 2.16 million) of total Mainland arrivals to Hong Kong came under the Individual Visit Scheme, 21.1% more than in the same month last year.

Follow TravelDailyNews Asia-Pacific in Google News

Luc Citrinot

+ Articles

Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.