Hong Kong continues to enjoy strong growth in tourist arrivals for the first half year of 2012. Between January and June 2012, the Special Administrative Region recorded a total of 22.32 million visitor arrivals, a year-on-year increase of 15.5%.
HONG KONG- Each year passing, tourism in Hong Kong beats a new record and 2012 is no exception to it. The city registered from January to June of this year 22.32 million visitors arrivals up by 15.5%, a number boosted by arrivals from Mainland China. During the first half year of 2012, the growth of Mainland Chinese was up by 22.7%. Very encouraging is the evolution of the Japanese market, up by 8.3%. It took just a year in Japan to see the country’s growing again.
Commenting on the positive growth trend in visitor arrivals, HKTB Chairman Mr James Tien said: “We are encouraged to see that amidst the global economic uncertainties, our tourism industry reported satisfactory growth during the first half of the year. Other than Mainland China, growth was recorded in the overall short-haul and long-haul arrival figures, with Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Russia achieving outstanding performances. These results certainly underline Hong Kong’s status as a preferred international travel destination and as Asia’s World City”.
Relatively disappointing are the performances of Australia and New Zealand, down by 0.3% while Taiwanese arrivals were down by 5.7%.Another weak performance was recorded by South Asia/Southeast Asia with total arrivals only up by 0.7%.
“Looking into the latter half of this year, we remain cautiously optimistic about the industry outlook, even though the global economy remains volatile, which will inevitably impact the demand for travel. To address this, the HKTB will be closely monitoring changes in the macro environment. We will maintain flexibility in adapting our marketing strategies and make our best efforts to maintain a balanced portfolio of visitors. We have already planned the launch of a series of mega events in the coming months to further enhance Hong Kong’s appeal and provide our tourism partners with different business platforms,” explained HKTB Chairman.
The table below summarizes the performance of the various market regions in the first half of 2012:
|
January to June |
||
|
Market Region |
2012 |
Vs. 2011 |
|
Mainland China |
15,582,767 |
+22.7% |
|
Short-haul Markets (excl. Mainland China) |
4,368,689 |
+1.1% |
|
North Asia |
1,180,753 |
+7.7% |
|
South & Southeast Asia |
1,800,950 |
+0.7% |
|
Taiwan |
993,538 |
-5.7% |
|
Long-haul Markets |
2,371,298 |
+2.6% |
|
The Americas |
898,946 |
+1.4% |
|
Europe, Africa & the Middle East |
1,102,598 |
+4.6% |
|
Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific |
369,754 |
-0.3% |
|
Total* |
22,322,754 |
+15.5% |
*Total figure includes arrivals from the Macau SAR
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.
