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The Hong Kong Tourism Board announced that total visitor arrivals to Hong Kong in the month of May reached 3,230,028, a year-on-year increase of 14.7%. Between January and May 2011, visitor arrivals cumulated to 16,295,959, 14.5% more compared to the same period last year.
In the first five months of 2011, visitor arrivals from most market regions sustained the upward trend. Among these, the Mainland market registered the biggest cumulative growth at 20%, with arrivals reaching 10.77 million. Growth in major long- and short-haul markets was also stable. Specifically, buoyant performance was observed in South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and Russia, with each market gaining double-digit growth in cumulative arrivals.
In May alone, arrivals from Mainland China grew by 23.4% to 2.11 million. Sustainable economic growth and appreciation of the Renminbi against the Hong Kong dollar continued to encourage Mainland visitors to come to Hong Kong for consumption. Of the total Mainland arrivals, 63.1% or 1.33 million made their trips under the Individual Visit Scheme, representing a 32.6%-increase year-on-year.
In the short-haul markets, visitor arrivals in May were generally similar to the level of the same month last year at about 680,000. For the Japanese market, while consumers’ travel propensity remained affected by the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake, the decline in arrivals has stabilised at around 10%. Overall, arrivals from North Asia decreased by only 1%, as the shortfall in Japan was offset by continued strong growth in South Korea (+18.8%, over 830,000), which was led by the country’s economic stability and robust consumer confidence.
Meanwhile, steady growth was registered in Southeast Asia, the arrivals of which rose by 7.0% to more than 273,000 in May. The best performers in the region were Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, all registering an increase of about 20%. This could be attributed to the expanded flight capacity between Hong Kong and the three countries, which encouraged the travel trade in the respective markets to launch more vacation itineraries to Hong Kong.
In Taiwan, overnight visitor arrivals with higher spending surged by 13.1% to nearly 55,000, taking up approximately one-third of total Taiwanese arrivals. In May, total arrivals from the market decreased by a slight 2.7% to 160,000.
In the long-haul markets, arrivals exceeded 370,000 in May, which were similar to last year’s figure. Both the Americas, as well as Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific recorded growth, of 3.9% and 3.0% respectively. As for the emerging market of Russia, arrivals in May continued to register double-digit growth (+48.5%). On a five-month rolling basis, arrivals from the country cumulated to over 52,000.
Overnight Visitors Vs. Same-day In-town Visitors
In May 2011, overnight visitors to Hong Kong went up by 8.0% to over 1.72 million, or 53.3% of all visitors to Hong Kong. Same-day visitors also rose by 23.5% to exceed 1.5 million.
Cumulatively, over 8.62 million or 53.0% of all visitors to Hong Kong stayed overnight during their visits, 7.7% more than last year. Same-day visitors exceeded 7.66 million, 23.2% up compared to the same period in 2011.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
